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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph 
and  His  Times 


Frontispiece] 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph 

and  His   TimeS^      By  Ueutenant- 
General    Baron    von    '^argutti,    C.V.O, 

(Attached  to  the  Aides-de-Camp  s  Department  of  the  Imperial  Household^ 

1900-1917) 


NEW    YORK: 
GEORGE    H.    DORAN    COMPANY 


Printed  in  Great  Britain 


TO  MISS  ALICE  S.   TOLLEMACHE. 

OF  LAYSTON  HOUSE.  BUNTINGFORD.  HERTS. 

WHO.  IMMEDIATELY  AFTER  THE  WAR. 

EXTENDED  IN  TRUE  FRIENDSHIP  HER  HELPFUL  HANDS 

TO  MY  FAMILY.  TRYING  IN  EVERY  WAY 

TO  LESSEN  THE  HARDSHIPS  OF  OUR  PRESENT  EXISTENCE. 

I  DEDICATE  THE  FOLLOWING  PAGES  OF 

THIS  ENGLISH  EDITION  OF  MY  PERSONAL  MEMORIES 

IN  NEVER-FAILING  THANKFULNESS  AND  DEVOTION. 

ALBERT  BARON  VON  MARGUTTI.  CV.O. 
Trieste.  Augutt  25th,  1921. 


PREFACE 

Cadono  le  Citta, 
Cadono  i  regni, 
E  r  uomo,  che  de  cader 
Par  che  si  sdegni.  •  .  . 

The  great  and  powerful  State  whose  citizens  we  once 
were  has  ceased  to  exist.  With  it  vanished  the  venerable 
House  which  had  reigned  over  it  for  six  and  a  half  centuries. 

Memories  alone  are  left  to  us.  They  rise  from  the  grave 
like  those  of  our  dead,  and  first  among  them  the  memory  of 
him  who  from  his  post  of  supreme  authority  gave  the  vanished 
epoch  its  particular  character  for  two  generations — Francis 
Joseph  I.,  Emperor  of  Austria  and  Apostolic  King  of  Hungary. 

Now  is  the  time,  among  the  unceasing  difficulties  and  the 
endless  trials  of  our  daily  life,  that  he  seems  to  draw  nearer 
to  us,  perhaps  because  Death,  which  reveals  all  things,  is 
lifting  the  veil  from  him  too,  or  because  he  comes  before  us 
as  one  of  the  most  tragic  figures  of  the  old  Austria. 

He  ascended  the  throne  of  his  fathers  when  the  confusion 
of  the  stormy  years  1848  and  1849  was  at  its  height,  and  he 
bade  this  earth  farewell  when  the  far  more  momentous 
events  of  the  greatest  and  most  fateful  struggle  that  the  world 
has  ever  seen  kept  us  in  breathless  suspense.  Between  those 
two  periods  lie  nearly  seventy  years,  years  filled  with  tragedies 
for  the  dynasty,  political  dissensions  of  every  kind  which  kept 
the  nations  and  countries  of  the  Empire  in  a  state  of  con- 
tinuous convulsion  and  unsuccessful  wars. 

Yet  notwithstanding  all  the  blows  of  fate  this   sovereign 

ix. 


Preface 

stood  firm  and  undaunted  at  the  helm  of  State  throughout 
this  long  period.  From  earliest  youth  to  extreme  old  age 
he  never  allowed  the  reins  of  his  inherited  dominion  to  slip 
from  his  grasp.  History  will  surely  show  whether  he  ruled 
his  people  well  and  effectively,  whether  he  always  proved 
equal  to  the  demands  made  upon  him,  and  whether  he  could 
have  achieved  more  in  the  way  of  mastering  his  tasks,  or  could 
and  should  have  had  a  clearer  realization  of  them. 

The  search  for  the  true  answer  to  these  questions  will 
probably  keep  the  world  busy  for  generations.  It  is  not  yet 
time  for  a  contemporary,  working  within  a  limited  scope, 
to  venture  upon  so  fundamental  an  exploration. 

Immediately  after  the  death  of  Francis  Joseph,  the  ata- 
vistic, artificial  bonds  of  the  nationalities  over  which  the  old 
Emperor  ruled  along  traditional  lines  were  torn  asunder* 
Though  he  observed  those  principles  with  tireless  zeal  and 
the  greatest  loyalty  to  established  custom  the  aged  monarch 
never  consciously  disregarded  the  growing  demands  of  the 
times.  Such  is  the  ultimate  explanation  of  the  fact  that  so 
long  as  he  sat  on  the  throne  a  system  which  was  probably 
already  out  of  date  proved  itself — whatever  critics  may  say 
— effective  and  at  any  rate  workable.  In  any  case,  during 
this  period  there  were  no  such  cracks  in  the  structure  of  the 
State  as  were  likely  to  bring  about  a  direct  collapse. 

It  was  two  years  after  Francis  Joseph's  death  that  the 
climax  came  with  the  break-up  of  the  Hapsburg  states.  Yet 
the  time  is  so  short  that  no  doubt  the  charge  of  inefficiency 
is  bound  to  be  levelled  at  the  rule  of  the  old  monarch  as  well. 

In  days  to  come,  expert  inquiry  will  show  how  far  the 
mistakes  and  omissions  which  brought  about  the  collapse 
of  the  Danube  Monarchv  are  to  be  traced  to  the  work  of 
Francis  Joseph  himself.  With  a  view  to  assisting  judgment 
in  these  matters  it  will  not  be  out  of  place  to  have  a  character 
sketch  of  this  sovereign  which  is  based  upon  direct  personal 
impressions. 

X 


Preface 

I  propose,  therefore,  to  sketch  out  a  personal  portrait, 
making  full  use  of  my  own  observations  and  impressions 
during  my  seventeen  years'  service  in  the  Aides-de-Camp's 
Department,  and  of  the  material  in  the  shape  of  evidence, 
comments  and  information  I  have  been  able  to  gather  from 
other  absolutely  unimpeachable  sources.  In  broad,  bold  out- 
line these  reminiscences  vsdll  illustrate  the  character  and 
activities  of  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  in  his  old  age, 
that  is  during  the  opening  years  of  the  century  and  the 
world  crisis  which  is  with  us  still. 


CONTENTS 


CHAP. 

Preface   

I. — Francis  Joseph's  Career 
II. — The  Old  Emperor  Himself 
III. — Memories  of  the  Empress  Elizabeth 
IV. — Memories  of  the  Crown  Prince  Rudolph 
V. — Francis  Ferdinand 
VI. — The  Archduke  Charles  . 

VII.— The  Court 

VIII. — Francis  Joseph  and  His  Peoples    . 
IX. — Francis  Joseph's  Foreign  Relations 
X. — The  Old  Emperor  in  the  World  War 


page 
ix 

I 

24 

56 

82 

no 

143 
166 

186 

219 
302 


LIST  OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 

The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  ....        Frontispiece 

The   Emperor   Francis   Joseph   with   the   Archduke 
Francis    Joseph    Otto,    son    of    the    Archduke 

Charles.     {Photo  taken  September  15,  1914.)          .  Facing  p.  64 

The  Emperor  at  work            ......  96 

The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  on  his  Deathbed        .         „  128 

The  late  Empress  Ehzabeth            .         .         .         .        „  160 

The  Archduke  Francis  Ferdinand            .         .         .         „  192 

The  Duchess  of  Hohenberg,  Wife  of  the  Archduke 

Francis  Ferdinand            ......  224 

The  Emperor  Charles  and  his  Family      .         .         .        „  288 


THE  EMPEROR  FRANCIS  JOSEPH 
AND  HIS  TIMES 

CHAPTER  I 
FRANCIS  JOSEPH'S  CAREER 

MY  personal  recollections  of  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph 
date  from  the  time  when  I  was  appointed  one  of 
his  Aides-de-camp,  and  thus  cover  the  period  from  the  opening 
of  the  century  to  the  Monarch's  death.  This  decade  and  a 
half,  1900  to  1 916,  represents  his  last  years.  He  was  thus  an 
old  man  when  I  first  knew  him. 

To  judge  both  him  and  his  work  in  this  period  objectively 
it  must  always  be  borne  in  mind  that  Francis  Joseph  attained 
the  age  of  more  than  eighty-six  years,  and  that  for  nearly 
sixty-eight  of  them  he  sat  on  the  throne  and  directed  the 
destinies  of  the  Hapsburg  Empire.  Hardly  any  other  sover- 
eign has  enjoyed  so  long  a  period  of  effective  rule.  Two 
generations,  with  all  their  changes,  their  progressive  develop- 
ments and  discoveries,  their  ceaseless  evolution  in  the  intellec- 
tual and  technical  spheres,  passed  before  his  eyes. 

Let  us  glance  back  for  a  moment  at  the  year  1848  in  which 
Francis  Joseph  began  his  reign.  Remember  the  patriarchal, 
primitive  arrangements  of  public  and  private  life  which  then 
obtained — the  railways  scarcely  out  of  their  cradle,  the  couriers 
and  post-riders,  coaches  and  omnibuses  as  the  ordinary  means 
of  transport,  sailing-ships  and  rowing  boats,  workers  organ- 
ized in  guilds,    forced  labour,   serfdom,  which    still   existed 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

to  a  large  extent,  and  last,  but  not  least,  absolute  autocracy. 
Compare  these  conditions  with  those  of  1916,  in  which  rail- 
ways, steamers,  aircraft,  the  motor  industry,  telegraphs, 
telephones,  electricity,  gas,  photography,  huge  factories 
and  industrial  establishments  and  all  the  other  phenomena 
which  owe  their  existence  to  the  discoveries  of  modern 
times  have  attained  the  highest  degree  of  perfection.  Nor 
must  we  forget  universal  suffrage,  which  has  set  a  crown  upon 
the  head  of  the  modern  passion  for  freedom.  We  see  at 
once  that  the  world  at  the  end  of  this  period  of  nearly  seventy 
years  bore  a  totally  and  fundamentally  different  complexion 
from  that  with  which  it  opened. 

Francis  Joseph  had  to  share  in  these  colossal  changes 
which  had  the  most  far-reaching  effects  on  the  framework 
of  his  states  and  the  lives  of  each  of  their  citizens. 

It  is  necessary  to  keep  these  unprecedented  developments, 
or  at  any  rate  their  predominant  features,  before  our  eyes 
when  we  attempt  to  judge  the  life  and  work  of  the  old  Emperor 
with  understanding  and  without  prejudice.  Much  in  his 
character,  as  revealed  to  us  after  the  century  opened,  is 
explained  by  the  long  and  eventful  development  of  his  per- 
sonality, and  more  particularly  by  the  effect  of  certain 
experiences  which  gave  the  old  monarch  his  particular 
individuality. 

Francis  Joseph,  the  eldest  son  of  the  Archduke  Francis 
Charles  and  the  Archduchess  Sophie,  daughter  of  King 
Maximilian  Joseph  of  Bavaria,  was  born  at  Schonbrunn  on 
August  18,  1830.  His  childhood  thus  falls  in  the  reign  of 
his  grandfather,  the  Emperor  Francis  I.,  and  his  early  youth 
in  that  of  his  uncle,  the  Emperor  Ferdinand  I.,  so  that  both 
stages  form  part  of  that  period  of  general  political  stagnation 
— so  averse  to  any  and  every  form  of  change — during  which 
the  Chancellor,  Prince  Metternich,  was  all-powerful  and 
governed  the  Hapsburg  States  in  accordance  with  the  re- 


Francis  Joseph's  Career 

actionary,   and  in  many  respects  foolish,   principles  o£  the 
Holy  Alliance. 

The  Archduke  Francis  Charles — Francis  Joseph's  father — 
was,  like  his  elder  brother,  a  nonentity  who  is  best  described 
by  the  adjective  "  the  Good,"  which  history  has  actually 
conferred  on  Ferdinand,  but  which  is  really  a  pis  alter .  Very 
different  was  his  wife,  the  Archduchess  Sophie,  a  gifted,  well- 
educated,  self-assertive,  extraordinarily  ambitious  and  im- 
perious woman.  To  her  preponderating  influence  Francis 
Joseph  owed  the  fact  that  he  was  given  a  very  careful  and  what 
was  then  considered  an  uncommonly  varied  education. 
Special  importance  was  attached  to  a  thorough  knowledge 
of  languages ;  so  much  so  that  Francis  Joseph  could  not 
only  speak  and  write  in  German,  Italian,  Hungarian  and 
French,  but  also  had  a  respectable  knowledge  of  Czech, 
Polish  and  Croatian  which  was  of  equal  value  to  him  later  on. 

The  young  Archduke  also  travelled  a  good  deal  in  his 
early  years,  particularly  in  Italy.  That  he  really  endeavoured 
to  gather  impressions  from  his  travels  is  proved  by  the  drawings 
and  sketches  he  made  during  his  residence  in  various  towns. 
I  have  seen  several  of  these  and  they  show  technical  skill,  and 
more  particularly  a  lively  comprehension  which  reveals 
what  a  careful  and  close  observer  Francis  Joseph  must  even 
then  have  been. 

I  need  hardly  say  that  a  suitable  military  education  for 
the  young  Archduke  was  not  forgotten.  After  certain  theo- 
retical studies  (which  were  then  on  very  narrow  and  purely 
formal  lines)  we  see  him  learning  practical  soldiering,  again 
mainly  in  Italy.  On  May  6,  1848,  he  received  his  baptism 
of  fire  by  the  aged  Field-Marshal  Radetzky's  side  in  the 
action  at  Santa  Lucia. 

It  was  not  long  after  this  that  any  further  systematic 
education  had  to  be  abandoned,  as  Francis  Joseph,  barely 
eighteen  years  old,  suddenly  found  himself  a  leading  figure 
on  the  stage  of  world-history. 

^  I* 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

In  1848  the  venerable  Austrian  monarchy  was  caught 
by  the  fever  of  revolution  and  shaken  to  the  very  heart.  In 
a  few  days  the  nations  of  the  Empire,  which  had  only  just 
become  conscious  of  having  attained  their  political  majority, 
destroyed  the  worm-eaten  patriarchal  system  of  Metternich 
and  all  its  irksome  shackles.  The  Emperor  Ferdinand  I. 
succumbed  to  the  new  order  after  feeble  and  unskilful  efforts 
to  walk  in  new  paths.  On  December  2,  1848,  he  abdicated 
at  Olmiitz*  in  favour  of  his  eldest  nephew,  the  Archduke 
Francis  Joseph,  who  had  been  declared  of  full  age  the  day 
before.  His  father,  the  Archduke  Francis  Charles,  had 
renounced  the  succession. 

It  was  a  melancholy  inheritance  upon  which  the  Emperor 
Francis  Joseph,  suddenly  placed  upon  Europe's  oldest  throne, 
now  entered.  The  flames  of  revolution  raged  on  all  sides. 
The  foundations  of  order  had  first  to  be  laid  before  the  work 
of  reconstruction  could  begin. 

Francis  Joseph  addressed  himself  conscientiously  to  this 
difficult  and  important  preliminary  task,  and  he  was  well 
supported  by  a  Ministry  newly  constituted  by  Prince  Felix 
Schwarzenberg  in  which  energetic  men  like  Stadium,  Bach 
and  Bruch  took  the  lead. 

In  May,  1849,  the  young  Emperor  went  to  Hungary 
which  was  still  in  revolt.  He  had  been  preceded  by 
Prince  Windischgratz  with  a  force  of  reliable  and  tried 
troops. 

Then  he  hastened  to  Warsaw  to  meet  the  Emperor 
Nicholas  I.  of  Russia,  who  at  Francis  Joseph's  request  had 
ordered  an  army  to  be  sent  to  Hungary  to  overthrow  the 
rebels  Kossuth  and  Gorgey.  The  former  fled  to  Turkey 
and  Gorgey  capitulated  at  Vilagos  on  August  13,  1849. 

In  the  previous  March  Radetzky,  by  his  victories  at 
Mortara  and  Novara,  had  compelled  King  Charles  Albert 
of  Sardinia  to  abdicate,  and  thus  restored  Austrian  supremacy 
in  liOmbardy  and  Venetia.     Thus  by  the  close  of  this  year 

4 


Francis  Joseph's  Career 

the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  was  in  a  position  to  secure 
his  authority  in  all  the  lands  bequeathed  to  him  by  his 
ancestors. 

The  year  1848,  again,  saw  the  end  of  the  attempt  among 
the  German  states  to  form  a  confederation  under  the  leader- 
ship of  Prussia,  and  the  influence  of  Austria  once  more 
became  predominant  in  Germany.  In  the  Italian  Peninsula 
also  the  hegemony  of  Austria  seemed  to  be  re-established  by 
the  restoration  of  all  the  old  principalities. 

The  storm,  which  had  darkened  the  whole  sky,  had 
passed  over  sooner  than  could  originally  have  been  hoped, 
and  Francis  Joseph  found  himself  in  the  fortunate  position 
of  being  able  to  take  firm  hold  of  the  reins  of  government 
under  favourable  and  promising  auspices.  Moreover  his 
accession  was  preceded  by  a  valuable  rumour  that  he  was 
minded  to  govern  constitutionally  and  honestly  intended  to 
make  full  use  of  all  that  the  new  age  offered. 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  in  contrast  to  these  expecta- 
tions was  the  fact  that  on  March  4,  1849,  the  Emperor  decreed 
the  dissolution  of  the  Vienna  Reichstag  which  had  been 
summoned  to  Kremsier  in  Moravia  for  further  conferences 
on  the  constitution.  An  even  greater  contrast  was  the  with- 
drawal of  the  constitution  for  the  whole  Empire,  as  well  as 
Hungary,  which  Francis  Joseph  had  announced  on  his  own 
authority.  From  these  measures  it  can  be  seen  that  the 
forces  of  reaction — already  lurking  in  the  background — ^were 
beginning  to  gain  influence  over  the  young  ruler.  Before 
long  they  raised  their  head  openly  and  were  able  to  do  so 
all  the  more  effectively  because  they  had  the  support  of  the 
favourable,  though  unforeseen,  turn  of  events  and  the  hyper- 
conservative  opinions  of  the  Emperor's  mother,  the  Arch- 
duchess Sophie,  and  Count  Griinne,  his  Aide-de-camp  and 
principal  adviser.  As  a  matter  of  fact  the  monarch,  as  yet 
inexperienced  and  unaccustomed  to  direct  touch  with  the 
representatives  of  his  peoples,  succumbed  only  too  soon  to  the 

5 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

promptings  of  these  two  and  their  following.  It  is  regrettable 
to  find  him,  after  hastily  annulling  the  ancient  national 
constitutions,  abolishing  the  constitution  of  the  Empire  on 
August  20,  1 85 1,  and  in  January,  1852,  restoring  autocratic 
government,  the  reins  of  which  he  took  more  or  less  exclu- 
sively into  his  own  hands  after  the  death  of  Prince  Felix 
Schwarzenberg  in  April,  1852. 

Here  was  a  sinister  beginning,  for  the  young  Emperor 
surrounded  himself  with  irresponsible  men  of  no,  or  few, 
intellectual  attainments  who  were  at  his  but  not  the  people's 
service.  He  was  soon  entirely  at  the  mercy  of  their  whisper- 
ings, selfish  intrigues  and — by  no  means  least — their  hopeless 
irresponsibility.  It  is  hardly  surprising  that  what  followed 
was  a  never-ending  series  of  blunders  in  Austrian  domestic 
politics,  blunders  which  unfortunately  run  through  Francis 
Joseph's  reign  like  a  scarlet  thread,  notwithstanding  the 
Emperor's  goodwill,  which  none  can  doubt,  or  the  purity 
of  his  motives.  The  decisions  of  185 1  and  1852  meant  that 
from  the  very  start  his  rule  was  stamped  with  the  ominous 
impression  that  the  Emperor  did  not  realize  the  spirit  of  the 
times  and  was  therefore  incompetent  to  lead  his  peoples  in 
that  spirit. 

Strictly  speaking  such  a  conclusion  does  less  than  justice 
to  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph.  He  was  convinced  that 
it  was  in  the  best  interests  of  his  subjects  that  the  burden 
of  making  laws  and  ordinances  should  rest  upon  his  shoulders 
alone.  At  that  time,  perhaps,  Francis  Joseph  did  not  know 
that  the  voice  of  the  nation  should  be  heard,  and  the  men 
around  him  took  good  care  to  keep  him  in  ignorance,  for  fear 
of  "  encroachments  on  the  sovereign's  powers,"  so  they  said  ; 
but  surely  their  main  motive  was  merely  to  preserve  their 
own  influence  unimpaired. 

It  was  during  this  period  of  splendid  autocracy — though 
the  splendour  was  purely  fictitious — that  on  April  24,  1854, 
the  young  Emperor  offered  his  hand  in  marriage  at  Vienna 

6 


Francis  Joseph's  Career 

to  the  Duchess  Elizabeth  of  Bavaria,*  a  surpassing  beauty. 
One  sonf  and  three  daughters  J  were  born  of  the  marriage. 

The  marriage  upon  which  Francis  Joseph  entered  was  a 
real  love-match  and  it  was  concluded  under  the  most  promis- 
ing auspices.  Unfortunately,  it  never  proved  itself  that 
source  of  unsullied  domestic  bliss  that  might  have  been 
expected. 

The  same  year,  1854,  also  witnessed  the  adoption  of  that 
foreign  policy  which  likewise  led  only  to  disaster,  a  result 
which  unfortunately  was  destined  to  be  characteristic  of 
the  era  of  Francis  Joseph.  The  Crimean  War  broke  out. 
England  and  France,  subsequently  supported  by  Sardinia, 
entered  into  an  alliance  with  Turkey  against  Russia  which 
had  declared  war  on  the  latter. 

The  Czar  Nicholas  now  expected  that  Francis  Joseph, 
mindful  of  the  decisive  help  he  had  given  him  against  Hun- 
gary only  a  short  time  before,  would  take  part  in  the  struggle 
as  his  ally.  At  that  time  the  conduct  of  foreign  affairs  was 
in  the  hands  of  the  incapable  Count  Buol  who  vacillated  in 
the  most  unpardonable  fashion  at  this  critical  juncture.  As 
far  as  appearances  went  he  inclined  neither  to  Russia  nor 
the  Western  Powers.  Trying  to  sit  on  two  stools,  he  fell 
between  them.  His  decisions  culminated  in  a  temporary 
occupation  of  Wallachia,  the  cost  of  which  threw  the  finances 
of  the  Danube  Monarchy — unstable  enough  in  any  case — 
into  hopeless  confusion.  The  other  result  was  that  not  only 
Russia,  but  England  and  France  also  were  permanently 
incensed  against  Austria.  When  the  Czar  Nicholas  died  in 
1855  and  his  successor,  Alexander  H.,  made  peace  at  Paris 

•  Daughter  of  Duke  Max  of  Bavaria,  born  at  Munich  on  December  24,  1837. 
Assassinated  at  Geneva  on  September  10,  1898. 

t  The  Crown  Prince,  Archduke  Rudolph,  born  at  Laxenburg  on  August  21,  1858. 
Died  at  Mayerling  on  January  30,  1889. 

t  Sophie,  born  at  Vienna  on  March  5,  1855  ;  died  on  May  29,  1857.  Gisela,  born 
at  Laxenburg  on  July  12,  1856.     Marie  Valerie,  born  at  Budapest  on  April  22,  1868. 

7 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

on  March  30,  1856,  after  Russia's  disastrous  war,  Austria 
oifered  the  anything  but  elevating  spectacle  of  complete 
political  isolation.  This  was  all  the  more  disastrous  as  even 
in  the  German  Federation  sympathy  for  Francis  Joseph's 
autocratic  government  had  diminished  to  a  marked  degree. 

The  result  was  that  Austria  was  left  entirely  to  her  own 
resources  three  years  later  when  she  was  called  upon  to  defend 
her  historic  possessions  in  Upper  Italy  which  the  young 
King  of  Sardinia,  Victor  Emmanuel  II.,  prepared  to  attack 
in  alliance  with  France,  his  aim  being  to  realize  his  war-cry 
of  the  Unification  of  Italy,  a  war-cry  which  met  with  an 
enthusiastic  echo  over  the  whole  of  the  peninsula.  It  was 
then  seen  that  not  only  Francis  Joseph's  political  advisers 
but  even  his  military  colleagues  were  anything  but  equal  to 
their  task.  The  aged  Radetzky  had  been  gathered  to  his 
lathers  a  few  months  before  and  not  one  of  the  court  generals 
who  surrounded  the  Emperor  was  in  the  slightest  degree 
competent  to  take  the  dead  leader's  place.  On  June  24,  1859, 
the  main  Austrian  army,  at  the  head  of  which  was  Francis 
Joseph  himself,  suffered  a  decisive  defeat  at  Solferino. 

The  young  Emperor's  self-confidence,  which  had  grown 
much  more  obstinate  in  the  atmosphere  of  absolute  autocracy, 
at  once  began  to  waver.  His  nerves  failed.  Without  stop- 
ping to  reflect,  he  clasped  the  hand  of  reconciliation  which 
the  Emperor  Napoleon  III.,  who  had  likewise  taken  personal 
command  of  the  French  army,  immediately  offered  at  Villa- 
franca.  This  was  possibly  a  great  mistake,  as  the  French 
Emperor,  whose  army  had  already  suffered  the  heaviest 
losses,  might  easily  have  found  himself  in  a  dangerous  and 
perhaps  even  catastrophic  position  if  the  Austrians  had 
offered  further  resistance.  But  Francis  Joseph  now  thought 
only  of  peace.  The  continuation  of  hostilities  seemed  to 
him  to  involve  too  much  risk.  By  the  Treaty  of  Zurich  he 
ceded  Lombardy  which  had  been  promised  to  Victor 
Emmanuel  II.     The  latter  displayed  masterly  skill  in  uniting 

8 


Francis  Joseph's  Career 

under  his  sceptre  the  whole  of  Italy,  with  the  exception  of 
Venice  and  Rome,  during  the  next  two  years. 

The  Treaty  of  Zurich  seemed  to  mark  the  end  of  Austria's 
supremacy  in  Italy.  The  final  solution  of  this  great  political 
problem  showed  Francis  Joseph  coming  off  a  hopeless  second- 
best.     Austria's  star  had  begun  to  sink. 

The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  never  recovered  from  this 
heavy  blow.  There  was  much  heart-searching  and  in  the 
hour  of  disillusionment  he  realized  that  the  absolutist  sys- 
tem he  had  reintroduced  in  1852  was  no  longer  practicable 
because  the  strength  of  the  monarchy  was  being  sapped,  and 
sooner  or  later  the  Empire  was  bound  to  prove  incapable 
of  any  effort  at  home  or  abroad.  In  this  chastened  frame 
of  mind  Francis  Joseph  laudably  declined  to  stand  on  his 
own  dignity  and  proceeded  to  strike  out  new  paths.  He 
again  summoned  the  Reichsrat,  and  on  October  20  granted 
the  constitution  known  as  the  "  Oktoberdiplom,"  placed 
Schmerling  at  the  head  of  the  Government,  and  on  February 
26,  1 86 1,  sanctioned  that  constitution  which  brought  even 
Austria  into  the  ranks  of  states  with  a  modern  form  of  govern- 
ment. It  is  quite  true  that  this  constitution,  the  "  Februar- 
patent  "  did  not  entirely  meet  the  wishes  of  the  peoples  of 
the  Danube  Monarchy.  Hungary,  which  was  struggling 
for  complete  independence,  was  hostile  to  it  and  even  the 
Slavs  were  in  no  way  satisfied  since  their  ideal,  a  federal 
constitution  for  the  Empire,  was  ever  before  their  eyes. 

Francis  Joseph  had,  none  the  less,  changed  the  consti- 
tution of  his  states  in  conformity  with  the  demands  of  modern 
progress,  a  change  which  recovered  sympathy  for  Austria, 
particularly  in  the  German  Federation.  The  result  was  that 
the  proposal  put  forward  by  him  in  1863  for  a  reconstitution 
of  that  Confederation  under  Austrian  supremacy  met  with 
a  highly  favourable  reception  from  all  the  secondary  states 
and  even  most  of  the  small  states  of  Germany.  The  im- 
portance of  this  was  all  the  greater  because  the  Emperor 

9 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

was  doubly  anxious  to  realize  his  aspirations  with  regard 
to  Germany  now  that  his  ambition  of  Austrian  predominance 
in  Italy  had  suffered  shipwreck. 

A  diet  was  convened  at  Frankfort-am-Main  in  August, 
1863,  to  consider  this  reform  but  it  ended  with  a  serious 
rebuff  for  the  Austrian  Emperor,  as  King  William  I.,  who 
had  been  on  the  throne  of  Prussia  since  1861,  obstinately 
refused  to  take  any  part  in  the  Congress  and  declined  to  do 
anything  more  than  agree  to  take  common  action  with 
Austria  in  the  Schleswig-Holstein  question  which  had  be- 
come acute  at  that  moment. 

The  situation  was  that  Christian  IX.  of  Gliicksburg, 
in  accordance  with  the  terms  of  the  second  London  Protocol, 
had  entered  upon  the  government  of  the  unified  Danish 
state  and,  by  decreeing  a  constitution  applicable  to  the 
whole  of  this  state,  sanctioned  the  incorporation  into  Greater 
Denmark  of  Schleswig  and  Holstein  which  had  previously 
been  members  of  the  German  Confederation.  Austria  and 
Prussia  objected,  made  war  on  Denmark  in  1864,  and  ulti- 
mately compelled  her  to  cede  the  Elbe  duchies. 

These  immediately  became  a  fatal  apple  of  discord  between 
the  victors,  and  all  the  more  so  because  there  were  other 
causes  of  friction  between  Prussia — governed  constitutionally, 
it  is  true,  but  firmly  and  far-sightedly  by  William  I.  and 
his  Minister-President,  Bismarck — and  Austria  the  structure 
of  which  was  not  firmly  welded  together  and  into  which 
the  February  constitution  would  not  completely  fit.  The 
Magyars  and  Slavs  attacked  it  so  vehemently  that  in  1865 
its  author,  Schmerling,  resigned  and  his  successor,  Belcredi, 
withdrew  it. 

Belcredi's  attempted  solution  of  the  Schleswig-Holstein 
question  by  the  Gastein  Convention  of  August  14,  1865, 
also  led  to  no  result,  as  Prussia  meant  to  clear  up  this  question 
at  the  same  time  that  she  settled  the  issue  of  the  hegemony  of 
Germany. 

10 


Francis  Joseph  *s  Career 

William  I.  had  reorganized  his  army  in  exemplary  fashion. 
He  knew  that  in  any  case  he  could  rely  on  the  help  of  King 
Victor  Emmanuel  11.  (who  was  intent  on  the  conquest 
of  Venetia  by  fair  means  or  foul)  and  had  no  reason  to  fear 
a  conflict  with  Austria. 

In  April,  1866,  he  therefore  issued  through  Bismarck 
a  proposal  that  a  Pan-German  parliament  should  be  con- 
vened. This  action  necessarily  meant  war  and  speedy  war. 
Austria  and  the  secondary  German  states  allied  with  her 
found  themselves  attacked  by  Prussia  and  Italy. 

In  this  conflict  Italy  had  nothing  but  defeats  to  show 
on  land  and  sea  (Custozza  on  June  24,  1866,  and  Lissa  on 
July  20),  but  at  the  end  of  June  Prussia  gained  important 
successes  in  Bohemia  and  these  were  crowned  on  July  3, 
1866,  by  the  great  and  decisive  victory  over  the  Austrians 
at  Koniggratz.  King  Wilhelm  I.  led  his  army  in  person. 
The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph,  mindful  of  the  unhappy  day 
of  Solferino,  and  subordinating  his  personal  actions  too  much 
to  political  considerations,  kept  away  from  his  troops. 

On  July  22  Austria  abandoned  further  resistance  and 
on  August  23  concluded  the  Peace  of  Prague  with  Prussia. 
It  was  followed  by  the  Peace  of  Vienna  with  Italy  on  October 
3,  1866.  Austria  thus  went  out  of  the  German  Confederation 
for  ever  and  ceded  Venetia  to  the  Emperor  Napoleon  III. 
who  had  already  given  it  to  the  King  of  Italy. 

By  the  conclusion  of  these  treaties  Francis  Joseph  saw 
himself  fully  and  finally  robbed  of  supremacy  both  in  Ger- 
many and  Italy.  The  great  and  glowing  dreams  of  his  youth, 
the  mighty  and  ambitious  plans  which  had  inspired  him  for 
the  last  decade,  had  ended  in  smoke. 

The  only  course  open  to  Francis  Joseph  was  that  which 
Prince  Gortschakoff,  then  head  of  the  Czar's  government, 
expressed  clearly  and  tersely  in  the  historic  phrase,  "  Russia 
concentrates." 

Undivided   attention    was    now   devoted    to    affairs    at 

II 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

home  with  a  view  to  a  permanent  settlement  at  the  earliest 
possible  moment.  With  that  in  mind  Baron  von  Beust, 
who  had  left  the  Saxon  for  the  Austrian  service  and  become 
the  confidential  adviser  of  the  sorely-tried  Emperor,  recom- 
mended the  complete  pacification  of  Hungary.  In  confor- 
mity with  his  advice  the  lands  of  St.  Stephen  were  separated 
from  the  federation.  Francis  Joseph  had  himself  crowned 
at  Budapest  on  June  8,  1867,  as  King  of  Hungary,  and  the 
Hapsburg  Empire  immediately  emerged  as  the  "  Austro- 
Hungarian  Monarchy,"  to  meet  a  mere  fifty-year,  but  all 
the  more  stormy  future. 

At  the  same  time,  in  Austria  legal  recognition  was  given 
to  the  February  Constitution  of  1861  which  had  been 
supplemented  by  decrees  issued  in  1867,  and  in  Hungary 
to  the  original  constitution  which  had  been  modified  by  the 
laws  of  1848. 

The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  now  showed  a  praiseworthy 
readiness  to  abandon  some  of  his  personal  prerogatives  and 
hereditary  privileges  so  that  he  could  follow  the  trend  of 
modern  tendencies  and  co-operate  with  his  subjects  in  securing 
the  future  welfare  of  the  State.  For  him  the  year  1867 
thus  marked  a  decisive  turning  point.  He  was  definitely 
breaking  with  the  past  and  its  unhappy  experiments  at  home 
and  abroad  and  adopting  a  new  political  orientation  for  the 
days  to  come,  days  to  which  the  past  twenty  years  with  their 
more  than  bitter  experiences  should  be  but  a  prelude. 

The  passing  of  the  old  era  was  marked  by  a  very  sad  event 
in  the  Emperor's  own  family.  His  eldest  brother,  the 
Archduke  Ferdinand  Max,  who  had  set  forth  in  high  hopes 
to  place  the  elusive  crown  of  Mexico  upon  his  head  as  the 
Emperor  Maximilian  I.,  met  with  a  tragic  fate  after  all  his 
efforts  had  ended  in  disaster.  On  June  19,  1867,  he  was 
shot  on  the  plain  of  Queretaro  by  the  orders  of  President 
Benito  Juarez.  What  a  blow  this  tragic  end  must  have 
been  to  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph,  to  whom  his  House 

12 


Francis  Joseph's  Career 

always  came  first !  What  must  the  Archduchess  Sophie 
have  suffered  1  She  already  considered  herselt  mother  of 
two  Emperors  and  might  perhaps  have  been  mother  of  a 
king  as  well  if  the  events  of  1863  had  placed  her  third  child, 
the  Archduke  Charles  Louis,  on  the  throne  of  Poland. 

The  period  of  trials  and  disappointments  from  1848  to 
1867.  confirmed  the  Emperor,  who  was  now  in  the  prime  of 
life,  in  his  fundamental  resolve  to  give  his  peoples  the  bless- 
ings of  peace,  cost  what  it  might,  to  renounce  expansion 
and  the  outward  glitter  of  glory  by  repudiating  any  idea  of 
revanche  and  to  seek  and  find  the  welfare  of  his  Empire  only 
in  its  healthy  and  progressive  internal  development. 

His  attitude  in  the  year  1870  showed  that  the  Emperor 
meant  these  professions  honestly.  During  the  mighty 
Franco-German  conflict  the  Austro-Hungarian  Monarchy 
preserved  an  unwavering  neutrality.  Francis  Joseph  vigor- 
ously repudiated  all  the  French  invitations  to  a  "  Revenge 
for  Sadowa,"  and  unreservedly  recognized  the  glorious  crea- 
tion of  the  new  German  Empire  in  1871.  This  act  of  re- 
nunciation was  all  the  more  to  his  credit  because  the  success 
which  the  HohenzoUerns  had  now  achieved  had  once  been 
the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph's  holiest  and  fondest  dream. 

In  1873  Francis  Joseph  also  marked  his  final  renunciation 
of  his  Italian  ambitions  by  a  visit  he  paid  to  King  Emmanuel  II. 
in  Venice — an  Austrian  town  but  a  short  while  before.  These 
very  wise  excursions  into  the  realm  of  reality  soon  bore 
promising  fruit.  The  Danube  Monarchy  made  considerable 
economic  and  cultural  progress  and  that  in  turn  opened  the 
door  to  the  East,  its  proper  and  natural  field  of  activity. 

It  was  thus  under  the  most  hopeful  auspices  that  in  1873 
the  Emperor  celebrated  his  twenty-five  years  jubilee. 

As  the  Russo-Turkish  war  of  1877  and  1878  was  not  brought 
to  any  final  conclusion  by  the  preliminary  peace  of  San 
Stefano,  the  representatives  of  the  European  Powers  assembled 
in  the  Berlin  Congress  at  which  Count  Andrassy,  the  Austro- 

13 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

Hungarian  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs,  succeeded  in  ob- 
taining for  the  Danube  Monarchy  a  mandate  for  the  occupa- 
tion of  the  Turkish  provinces  of  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina. 
Thus  not  only  did  Dalmatia  secure  the  hinterland  which  she 
so  urgently  required  and  had  had  to  go  without,  but  Croatia 
and  Slavonia  also  obtained  an  indispensable  rampart.  It 
was  along  these  lines  that  the  way  to  Salonica  should  have 
been  opened  to  the  Hapsburg  Empire  and  if  the  project 
had  materialized  Austria-Hungary  would  have  obtained 
ipso  facto  the  hegemony  of  the  western  East. 

This  success  also  meant  a  happy  memory  for  Francis 
Joseph  personally.  He  had  added  to  his  Empire  in  the  south- 
east. 

Unfortunately  the  promise  was  not  destined  to  be  ful- 
filled for  at  home  the  worms  were  already  remorselessly 
busy  on  the  beams  of  the  Hapsburg  structure.  It  was  seen 
that  the  dualistic  system  which  had  been  introduced  for  the 
Danube  Monarchy  in  1867  was  nothing  but  an  ad  hoc  and 
highly  imperfect  solution  which  entirely  accounted  for 
the  weakness  of  the  whole  State.  West  of  the  Leitha  the 
Germans  ought  to  have  preserved  their  ascendancy.  They 
possessed  no  political  machinery  for  doing  so,  however,  and 
their  cultural  superiority  in  no  way  enabled  them  to  counter- 
balance the  growing  numerical  superiority  of  the  Slavs  in  the 
north  and  south  to  even  a  slight  degree.  On  the  other  side 
of  the  Leitha  the  Magyars  were  doing  everything  in  their 
power  to  impose  a  Hungarian  hegemony,  although  by  the 
test  of  numbers  they  too  were  quite  unequal  to  the  Slavs 
and  Rumanians  who  shared  the  land  with  them.  Yet  they 
were  only  superficially  successful  in  their  efforts  because 
all  they  really  did  was  to  get  themselves  hated  by  the  other 
nationalities  and  make  bitter  enemies  of  their  blood  relations 
beyond  the  frontiers.  The  result  of  the  nationalist  conflicts 
which  arose  out  of  the  Constitution  and  indeed  were  its 
first  fruits  was  a  government  on  the  basis  of  incessant  com- 

14 


Francis  Joseph's  Career 

promises  and  temporizations,  a  state  of  affairs  which  a  man  of 
the  experience  and  efficiency  of  Francis  Joseph  could  have 
coped  with  to  some  extent,  at  any  rate  at  home,  but  on  which 
the  foreign  relations  of  the  Monarchy  were  bound  to  have  a 
decidedly  growing  and  paralysing  effect.  That  is  why  the 
troops  of  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  never  entered  Salonica, 
his  fleet  was  never  mistress  of  its  waters  and  the  trade  of 
Austria-Hungary  had  to  rest  content  with  its  poor  and  ancient 
markets.  So  much  so  that  before  long  she  could  scarcely 
hold  her  own  with  the  resolute  rivalry  of  her  neighbours  in 
the  north-west  and  south-west  who  were  putting  forth 
mighty  efforts. 

Even  the  Bosnian  occupation  proved  itself  nothing  more 
than  a  temporary  expedient.  It  involved  the  Danube 
Monarchy  in  huge  financial  burdens  for  which  no  compensa- 
tion was  obtainable  in  the  shape  of  economic  advantages  or 
opportunities  for  expansion.  It  imposed  on  Austria-Hungary 
the  most  thankless  civilizing  work  in  destitute  regions  and 
eventually  became  the  direct  cause  of  the  ghastly  world- 
struggle  which  suddenly  hurled  the  Hapsburg  Empire  to 
its  doom. 

Of  course  the  alliance  with  Germany,  which  was  concluded 
in  1878  and  effected  such  improvement  as  was  possible  in 
the  unfavourable  situation  in  which  the  year  1866  had  left 
the  Germans  of  Austria,  certainly  brightened  the  Empire's 
prospects  for  the  future.  Three  years  later  by  the  adhesion 
of  Italy  the  Alliance  was  converted  into  that  bulwark  of 
peace  which,  so  long  as  the  "  Triple  Alliance  "  existed,  was 
the  key  to  the  subsequent  policy  of  the  Danube  Monarchy. 
Yet  the  internal  disintregation  of  the  Monarchy  was  beginning 
to  be  obvious  even  as  early  as  the  eighties.  Count  Taaffe, 
the  Austrian  Minister-President  of  unholy  memory,  could 
think  of  nothing  better  than  opportunism  and  playing  off 
the  many  nationaUties  of  the  western  half  of  the  Empire 
against  each  other,  so  that  they  could  never  settle  down. 

15 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

Simultaneously  the  Magyars  introduced  an  agrarian  terrorism 
which  can  only  be  described  as  narrow  and  short-sighted 
and  added  to  this  folly  by  virtually  hermetically  sealing  the 
Monarchy  against  the  economic  areas  in  the  Balkans.  These 
selfish  measures  not  only  resulted  in  a  general  and  steady 
increase  in  the  cost  of  living  in  Austria  but  aroused  terrible 
hatred  among  the  people  of  Serbia  and  Rumania  whose 
brothers  in  Hungary  were  already  suffering  severely  under 
a  systematic  oppression.  All  this  was  ultimately  pregnant 
with  the  most  terrible  consequences  for  Francis  Joseph's 
Empire. 

The  Emperor  recognized  these  evil  tendencies  too  late. 
He  then  endeavoured,  at  endless  pains  to  himself,  to  control 
them  but  unfortunately  found  neither  the  right  men  nor 
the  right  machinery  to  deal  with  the  situation.  The  result 
was  that  at  the  eleventh  hour  everything,  even  the  smallest 
details,  came  to  him  for  decision.  There  was  hardly  a  day 
which  did  not  bring  him  all  kinds  of  complaints,  grievances 
and  annoyances.  Unconsciously  he  began  to  feel  himself 
harassed  on  all  sides  and  in  this  frame  of  mind  he  often  came 
to  decisions  which  were  not  the  result  of  mature  consideration. 
Things  constantly  went  wrong  and  then  his  temperament 
prevented  him  from  taking  time  to  set  them  right  quietly 
and  with  due  deliberation.  He  was  a  tireless  worker,  but  it 
was  just  in  big  questions  that  he  became  a  mere  opportunist. 
In  the  end  he  lived  from  hand  to  mouth,  so  to  speak,  in  such 
matters. 

On  the  other  hand  the  sovereign  began  to  busy  himself 
mainly  with  details,  even  of  the  most  trivial  description, 
so  as  to  avoid  becoming  involved  in  the  perplexities  of  vital 
state  problems  and  getting  no  further.  It  was  hardly  sur- 
prising that  foolish  experiments  were  continually  being  made. 
The  Emperor  often  impatiently  attacked  some  matter  or 
other  only  to  let  it  drop  again  in  a  very  short  time.  It  was 
characteristic   of  his  whole   temperament  that  he   did   not 

i6 


Francis  Joseph's  Career 

possess  that  searching  gaze  which  clearly  sees  the  great  in 
the  small  and  the  whole  in  the  part  and  then  puts  the  know- 
ledge thereby  gained  to  practical  purpose.  In  this  phase  of 
his  life  Francis  Joseph  was  confronted  with  abrupt  changes 
which  were  naturally  bound  to  result  in  serious  mistakes. 

On  the  top  of  all  these  mischiefs  the  deplorable  eastern 
policy  pursued  by  the  Monarchy  led,  owing  to  a  miscalcula- 
tion in  connection  with  the  Serbo-Bulgarian  war  of  1885, 
to  a  further  increase  in  the  tension  with  Russia  which  almost 
led  to  war  in  1887  and  prevented  any  better  understanding 
between  the  Russian  and  Austro-Hungarian  Governments. 
To  the  tension  in  this  quarter  was  added  the  deep-rooted 
antagonism  between  France  and  Germany  which  had  been 
latent  since  1871  so  that  for  the  future  the  European  horizon 
was  darkened  with  heavy  thunder-clouds. 

On  December  2,  1888,  the  Emperor  held  his  forty  years' 
jubilee  which  was  commemorated  by  truly  eloquent  proofs 
of  the  affectionate  loyalty  of  his  subjects.  But  even  this 
joyful  occasion  was  followed  only  too  soon  by  a  frightful 
blow — the  death  by  violence  of  the  Emperor's  only  son, 
the  Crown  Prince  Rudolph,  who  met  a  premature  end  at 
Mayerling,  near  Heiligenkreuz,  on  January  30,  1889.  This 
tragedy  was  a  blow  not  merely  at  the  Emperor  and  his  family 
but  at  all  the  peoples  of  the  Danube  Monarchy.  For  to  all 
the  other  difficulties  with  which  they  were  confronted  was 
added  a  measure  of  uncertainty  in  the  succession,  now 
in  the  direct  line  no  longer  though  in  accordance  with 
the  constitution  the  Emperor's  second  brother,  the  Arch- 
duke Charles  Louis,  was  available  and  when  he  died  on  May  19^ 
1896,  his  eldest  son  Francis  Ferdinand,  born  December  18, 
1863,  and  still  unmarried.  The  Crown  Prince  Rudolph, 
who  had  been  married  on  May  10,  188 1,  to  Princess  Stephanie 
of  Belgium,  left  only  a  daughter,  Elizabeth. 

It  was  obvious  that  the  Crown  Prince  Rudolph's  shocking 
death  had  cast  a  gloom  over  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph 

17  2 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

for  the  rest  of  his  days.  The  effect  was  intensified  by  the 
fact  that  the  Empress  Elizabeth  also  had  been  utterly  pros- 
trated by  this  blow,  and  never  succeeded  in  reconciling 
herself  to  spending  the  rest  of  her  days  as  a  devoted  and 
self-sacrificing  companion  to  her  husband  and  sovereign. 
She  hoped  to  find  distraction  if  not  relief  from  her  sorrow 
in  continuous  foreign  travel,  in  the  course  of  which  she  fell 
a  victim  to  a  murderous  attack  by  an  anarchist  at  Geneva 
on  September  lo,  1898. 

Thus  robbed  of  his  two  nearest  and  dearest  by  violent 
death,  the  Emperor  henceforth  found  untiring  and  exhausting 
work  his  last  resource.  He  became  wholly  absorbed  in  the 
"  official  duties  "  which  claimed  his  attention  all  day  and 
every  day  from  early  morning  to  late  at  night.  He  allowed 
himself  no  sort  of  rest,  not  even  an  hour  or  two  for  recreation. 

Of  course  Francis  Joseph,  left  in  his  desolate  home, 
bereft  of  its  chatelaine  and  heir,  found  comfort  and  conso- 
lation in  the  tender  affection  of  the  two  daughters  still  left 
to  him.  The  elder,  Gisela,  wife  of  Prince  Leopold  of 
Bavaria  since  April  20,  1873,  and  the  younger,  Marie  Valerie, 
married  to  the  Archduke  Franz  Salvator,  of  the  Tuscan 
line  of  the  imperial  house,  had  created  a  delightful  family 
circle  in  which  the  Emperor  was  always  entirely  at  home. 
He  was  particularly  happy  in  the  company  of  the  many 
sons  and  daughters  of  the  Archduchess  Marie  Valerie,  the 
special  favourite  of  the  Empress  Elizabeth,  whom  he  often 
had  to  stay  with  him,  especially  in  summer.  She  helped 
him  to  forget  the  tragedies  of  his  life,  at  least  for  a  few 
hours. 

When,  on  December  2,  1898,  the  time  came  for  Francis 
Joseph  to  celebrate  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  his  accession, 
he  was  far  too  stricken  by  the  unspeakably  tragic  impressions 
of  the  Empress's  unexpected  death.  A  horribly  cruel  fate 
made  this  occasion,  which  in  other  circumstances  would 
have  been  a  time  of  rejoicing,  incredibly  bitter  to  the  sorely- 

iS 


Francis  Joseph's  Career 

tried  man.  It  was  the  same  with  August  i8,  1900,  Francis 
Joseph's  seventieth  birthday,  which  was  celebrated  joyously 
throughout  the  whole  monarchy.  It  found  the  Emperor 
in  a  sore  and  depressed  mood  owing  to  the  marriage,  on 
July  I,  1900,  of  the  heir,  the  Archduke  Franz  Ferdinand, 
to  Countess  Sophie  Chotek,  an  ex-Maid  of  Honour  to  the 
Archduchess  Isabella,  wife  of  the  Archduke  Frederick. 

His  attitude  was  comprehensible,  for  Francis  Joseph 
considered  himself  the  chosen  guardian  of  the  fame  and 
reputation  of  his  House — a  house  which  had  claimed  and 
occupied  the  first  place  in  Europe  for  more  than  six  hundred 
years.  How  hard  must  it  have  been  for  the  sovereign, 
worn  out  by  the  blows  of  fate,  to  give  his  consent  to  the 
heir's  morganatic  marriage !  How  often  in  later  years 
has  he  been  sorrowfully  reproached  for  allowing  his  consent 
to  this  alliance  to  be  wrung  from  him,  an  alliance  through 
which  even  the  legitimate  succession  to  the  age-old  throne 
of  the  Hapsburgs  might  well  have  been  endangered  !  This 
torturing  thought  tormented  Francis  Joseph  through  the 
evening  of  his  days. 

The  regrettable  discord  which  Francis  Ferdinand's 
marriage  produced  in  the  Emperor's  family  was  followed 
shortly  after  by  discord  in  the  domestic  and  foreign  policy 
of  the  Danube  Monarchy.  The  Slavs — particularly  the 
Czechs — began  to  claim  special  privileges.  Their  example 
was  followed  by  the  other  nations,  while  the  Magyars, 
standing  out  for  complete  independence,  shook  the  very 
foundations  of  the  Empire,  and  above  all  imperiously 
demanded  the  division  of  the  old  common  army.  Carried 
away  by  their  excessive  national  ambitions  and  nothing  less 
than  blind  with  self-intoxication,  they  were  apparently 
unable  to  perceive  the  direct  peril  which  knocked  at  the 
gates  of  their  own  country  when,  by  the  bloody  night  of 
June  13,  1903,  the  Obrenowicz  dynasty  was  removed  from 
Serbia's  path  and  in  its  place    Peter   Karageorgievicz,  who 

19  2* 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

had  based  his  programme  on  the  unification  of  all  Serbs — 
thus  including  those  of  Hungary — was  raised  to  the  throne 
in  Belgrade.  The  provocative  attitude  w^hich  Serbia  at 
once  displayed  and  the  Government  at  Vienna  could  hardly 
any  longer  ignore  failed  to  lead  to  direct  hostilities  only 
because  Russia,  w^hich  had  been  posing  as  protector  of  the 
Balkan  Slavs  for  years,  was  at  that  moment  involved  in  her 
disastrous  war  in  the  Far  East. 

Austria-Hungary  ought  to  have  used  that  favourable 
opportunity  to  clear  up  the  situation  in  the  south-east  in 
her  own  favour.  The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph's  advisers 
missed  their  chance,  however.  Nor  were  they  equal  either 
to  promptly  putting  some  check  on  the  policy  of  isolating 
Germany  which  the  English  King  Edward  VH.,  true  to 
his  principles,  had  taken  up  with  rare  diplomatic  skill  and 
pursued  with  no  less  determination,  or,  at  any  rate,  extracting 
from  it  some  ot  the  advantages  for  the  Hapsburg  state  which 
the  British  monarch  actually  offered. 

We  are  already  in  the  middle  of  that  period  during  which 
Francis  Joseph,  now  an  old  man,  sought  safety  only  in  the 
careful  avoidance  of  all  complications,  and  based  his  political 
decisions,  as  far  as  possible,  on  the  maintenance  of  the 
status  quo.  The  fact  that  in  the  long  run  this  policy  of  pas- 
sivity inevitably  contained  the  seeds  of  disaster  was  readily 
reaUzed  even  by  the  heir,  the  Archduke  Francis  Ferdinand, 
who  now  came  actively  to  the  front  inasmuch  as  in  the 
autumn  of  1906  he  began  to  exercise  a  decisive  influence 
in  military  affairs.  At  his  orders  old  and  decrepit  officers — 
such  as  Count  Beck,  the  Chief  of  the  General  Staff — were 
replaced  by  younger  men  and  by  degrees  the  heir  began  to 
have  the  last  word,  not  merely  in  the  army,  but  in  the  entire 
direction  of  affairs  in  Austria-Hungary.  Those  affairs  had 
already  reached  a  critical  stage. 

In  October,  1908,  the  situation  in  Turkey,  which  blos- 
somed forth  in  a  night  into  a  modern  constitutional  state, 

20 


Francis  Joseph's  Career 

compelled  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  to  active  intervention. 
He  proceeded  to  annex  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina.  The  then 
Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  Count  Aerenthal,  carried  out 
this  step  with  such  an  unexampled  lack  of  skill  that  not  only 
did  a  most  bitter  quarrel  with  the  Ottoman  Empire  and 
Serbia  result,  but  a  state  of  enmity  with  Russia  was  provoked 
the  tension  of  which  was  never  more  to  be  relaxed.  It  was 
only  by  the  most  exhausting  efforts  that  the  danger  of  an 
immediate  war  was  once  more  averted,  thanks  mainly  to  the 
conciliatory  intervention  of  France. 

It  was  in  this  critical  atmosphere  that  the  aged  Emperor 
had  to  celebrate  his  sixty  years'  jubilee,  that  favour  so  seldom 
granted  to  a  monarch.  The  occasion  was  also  saddened  by 
hostile  demonstrations  by  both  Hungarians  and  Czechs. 

A  temporary  improvement  in  the  general  situation 
enabled  the  Emperor  to  visit  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina  for 
the  first  time  in  May,  1910,  and  on  August  18,  1910,  to 
celebrate  his  eightieth  birthday  in  profound  peace.  On 
this  occasion  he  had  all  the  many  members  of  his  family 
around  him  and  received  from  his  peoples  many  spontaneous 
manifestations  of  unshakable  loyalty. 

This  was,  however,  the  last  tranquil  interval  in  the  life 
of  the  old  sovereign  for  the  Italian  war  in  Tripoli,  which 
broke  out  in  September,  191 1,  led  directly  in  the  following 
year  to  the  first  Balkan  War.  This  was  followed  by  the 
second  Balkan  War  in  191 3  which  stirred  up  the  South-East 
once  and  for  all  and  in  its  reflex  action  involved  the  Danube 
Monarchy  most  intimately. 

The  resulting  agitation,  which  had  reached  fever-heat 
in  Belgrade,  culminated  on  June  28,  1914,  in  the  political 
atrocity  of  the  assassination  of  the  Archduke  Francis  Fer- 
dinand and  his  wife  on  whom  the  title  of  Princess,  and 
subsequently  that  of  Duchess  of  Hohenberg,  had  been 
conferred  since  her  marriage.  That  was  the  signal  for  the 
war  between  Austria-Hungary  and   Serbia  which  was  to  be 

21 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

followed  a  few  days  later  by  the  mighty  struggle  of  the 
nations. 

In  a  moment  all  Francis  Joseph's  efforts  for  the  mainte- 
nance of  peace,  the  object  to  which  he  had  devoted  every 
hour  of  his  life  with  imcomparable  fervour  for  the  past 
ten  years,  proved  of  no  avail.  With  a  bleeding  heart  the 
Emperor  saw  the  monarchy  swept  by  the  tornado  of  war 
and  visited  by  the  most  ghastly  sufferings. 

He  conferred  the  supreme  command  of  the  army  upon 
the  Archduke  Frederick  to  whom  General  Conrad-Hotzen- 
dorf  was  assigned  as  Chief  of  the  General  Staff  with  very 
wide  powers.  But  he  kept  the  direction  of  state  business 
firmly  in  his  own  hands. 

Thus  began  the  world- war — under  anything  but  favour- 
able auspices. 

The  year  191 4  closed  with  serious  defeats  for  the  Austro- 
Hungarian  armies  which  at  the  outset  could  hold  their 
own  neither  against  the  Serbs  nor  Russia.  These  failures 
inspired  Italy  to  declare  war  on  the  Danube  Monarchy  on 
May  23,  191 5.  Although  Turkey,  and  subsequently  Bul- 
garia, joined  the  Central  Powers,  so  that  the  fortune  of  war 
was  decidedly  in  their  favour  at  the  end  of  191 5,  the  spring 
and  summer  of  191 6  brought  further  serious  reverses  in  the 
north-east  and  these  nipped  in  the  bud  an  Austro-Hungarian 
offensive  against  Italy  which  had  started  most  successfully. 
The  important  Russian  victories  induced  Rumania  to  join 
the  foes  of  the  Danube  Monarchy  at  the  end  of  August,  1916, 
and  its  uncommonly  precarious  situation  was  only  just  im- 
proved by  the  military  overthrow  of  the  new  enemy. 

The  old  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  could  no  longer  carry 
the  burden  of  responsibility  which  had  lain  so  heavily  on  his 
shoulders  for  two  years.  His  collapse  was  all  the  more  com- 
plete because  the  heir,  Archduke  Charles — born  August  17, 
1887,  and  a  son  of  the  Archduke  Otto,  who  died  on  November 
I,  1906 — proved  unequal  to  giving  any  kind  of  support  to 

22 


Francis  Joseph's  Career 

his  aged  great-uncle.  This  was  the  unfortunate  result  not 
merely  of  personality  but  of  the  education  and  upbringing 
of  this  young  prince.  Perhaps,  too,  he  did  not  take  sufficient 
trouble  with  his  work. 

Be  that  as  it  may,  the  old  Emperor  was  left  to  his  own 
resources  in  the  weeks  preceding  his  death.  By  putting  forth 
a  supreme  effort  he  did  his  duty  to  the  best  of  his  powers, 
even  when  at  the  end  of  October,  191 6,  he  was  attacked  by 
bronchitis — ushered  in  by  feverish  symptoms — from  which 
he  was  never  destined  to  recover.  Already  utterly  worn 
out  by  mental  and  physical  suffering,  he  was  still  at  work  in 
his  study  at  Schonbrunn  Castle  at  four  o'clock  in  the  after- 
noon of  November  21.  Then  at  last  he  found  himself  unable 
to  overcome  his  weakness.  He  was  forced  to  take  to  his 
bed  and  by  nine  o'clock  he  had  breathed  his  last. 

"  He  died  in  his  harness."  To  whom  could  the  expression 
apply  more  aptly  than  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  who  dis- 
regarded his  eighty-six  years  and  more  and  was  called  away 
by  God  in  the  midst  of  duty  nobly  done  ! 


«3 


CHAPTER  II 
THE  OLD  EMPEROR  HIMSELF 

I  WAS  already  turned  thirty  when  a  lucky  chance  gave 
me  my  first  opportunity  of  seeing  the  Emperor  Francis 
Joseph  face  to  face  and  having  a  few  words  with  him. 

At  the  end  of  September,  1900,  I  was  attached  to  the 
Italian  Mission  which  came  to  Vienna  to  report  to  the  Emperor 
the  accession  of  King  Victor  Emmanuel  III.  The  members  of 
this  mission,  at  the  head  of  which  was  General  Count  Del 
Mayno,  commander  of  the  Milan  Corps,  stayed  at  the  Hofburg 
as  the  Emperor's  guests  during  their  official  visit  to  Vienna. 

The  day  after  their  arrival  Count  Del  Mayno  and  his  suite 
were  received  by  the  Emperor  in  an  official  Ambassadors' 
audience  as  the  Count  had  to  hand  him  a  letter  from  the  King 
of  Italy  announcing  his  accession  to  the  throne. 

There  was  something  extraordinarily  impressive  about  the 
Ceremony  owing  to  the  appearance  of  the  splendid  guard  of 
officers  in  their  wonderful  gold  facings  who  made  a  hedge  of 
swords  in  the  rooms  through  which  Count  Del  Mayno  passed. 
When  it  was  over  I  was  particularly  pleased  to  note  how  much 
the  Italian  gentlemen  had  been  impressed  by  the  occasion. 
Count  Del  Mayno  and  his  suite  could  not  find  words  in  which 
to  praise  the  gracious  kindness  with  which  the  aged  monarch 
received  them.  Tears  stood  in  the  eyes  of  the  Italian  general, 
himself  an  old  man,  when  he  spoke  of  the  touching  warmth 
which  the  Emperor  had  shown  him. 

On  the  following  day  a  banquet  was  given  in  the  Kleine 

24 


The  Old  Emperor  Himself 

Galerie  of  Schonbrunn  Castle  in  honour  of  the  Italian  special 
Mission,  and  I  was  among  the  guests. 

Seated  next  to  General  Count  Del  Mayno  I  drove  in  a 
court  carriage  from  the  Hofburg  to  Schonbrunn.  When  we 
arrived  we  were  conducted  by  the  Master  of  Ceremonies  to 
the  assembly  room  where  the  highest  court  functionaries  and 
military  dignitaries  who  had  been  invited  to  the  banquet  were 
already  gathered.  I  was  just  in  the  act  of  introducing  the 
Italian  gentlemen  to  those  present  when,  in  a  moment,  or 
rather  in  a  flash,  all  conversation  suddenly  ceased  and 
everyone  bowed  in  a  silence  in  which  you  could  have  heard  a 
pin  drop.     The  Emperor  had  entered  the  room. 

For  the  first  time  I  realized  to  the  full  what  enormous  and 
indeed  magnetic  personal  prestige  there  was  about  the  Emperor 
Francis  Joseph.  His  sovereign  presence  had  an  almost  hyp- 
notic influence.  All  eyes  were  now  fixed  solely  on  the  monarch. 
No  one  had  thought  for  anything  else.  The  Emperor  turned 
straight  to  Count  Del  Mayno,  gave  him  his  hand  and  invited 
him  to  enter  the  banqueting  hall.  All  the  others  followed, 
and  I  with  them. 

It  was  not,  of  course,  the  first  time  that  I  had  been  present 
at  a  court  dinner.  But  the  impressive  arrangements,  the 
glass  and  flowers  which  produced  their  splendid  effect  by  sheer 
tasteful  simplicity,  the  subdued  lighting,  so  kind  to  the  eyes, 
the  silent  efficiency  of  the  perfectly  trained  staff,  the  choice 
food  and  wines  which  followed  in  quick  succession,  the  lively 
and  yet  subdued  conversation — in  short  everything  was 
steeped  in  such  an  atmosphere  of "  inspiration  "  that  one  could 
only  go  on  marvelling  and  hardly  venture  to  eat. 

The  Emperor  talked  brightly  with  his  neighbours  on  his 
right  and  left  and  the  gentlemen  sitting  opposite  him,  and  his 
conversation  never  failed,  although  his  sharp  eyes  often 
scanned  the  other  guests  present. 

There  were  no  toasts  and  the  sovereign  merely  touched 
Count  Del  Mayno's  champagne  glass  with  his  own.     When 

25 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

the  table  was  removed  the  Emperor  bowed  to  his  guests 
and  went  into  the  smoke-room,  whither  we  quickly  followed 
him  and  formed  casual  groups. 

Here  black  coffee  and  liqueurs,  cigars  and  cigarettes  were 
handed  round.  The  Emperor  never  drank  black  coffee. 
In  former  times  he  had  been  rather  a  great  smoker,  never 
refusing  a  cigar  either  after  meals  or  when  working.  He 
smoked  several  a  day,  preferably  the  pleasant  and  strong 
"  Virginia  "  (which  is  perhaps  why  they  have  become  so 
popular,  even  though  their  special  qualities  make  them 
superior  to  other  cheap  cigars).  In  my  time  the  old  Emperor 
already  preferred  a  rather  lighter  kind,  the  "  Regalia  Media," 
and  only  now  and  then  allowed  himself  one  of  the  long  thin 
Virginia  as  a  reminder  of  days  gone  by.  At  first  I  had  not  the 
courage  to  take  a  cigar  in  my  sovereign's  presence.  Admiral 
Baron  Von  Spaun,  a  very  old  friend  of  my  father's  who  was 
also  present,  noticed  this,  selected  a  cigar  from  the  silver  box, 
cut  it  and  handed  it  to  me  with  a  friendly  word,  and  I  lit  it  at  a 
candle  held  out  by  a  footman.  Meanwhile  the  Emperor  had 
begun  to  chat  with  all  his  guests  in  turn,  and  before  I  knew 
where  I  was  he  was  talking  to  me. 

The  Emperor's  first  question  was  about  my  work.  When 
I  told  him  that  I  was  employed  in  the  Operations  Department 
of  the  General  Staff  he  inquired  whether  I  had  been  present 
at  the  grand  manoeuvres  which  had  been  held  at  Jaslo  in 
Galicia  a  few  weeks  before.  I  answered  in  the  affirmative. 
We  had  a  fairly  long  conversation  on  this  subject  and  I  soon 
saw  with  what  deep  interest  the  sovereign  had  followed  the 
manoeuvres,  which  had  been  on  a  scale  never  attempted  before. 

The  Emperor's  quiet  conversation,  free  from  dialect,  and 
the  gentle  tone  of  his  rather  light  voice  were  particularly 
attractive.  I  may  as  well  say  at  once  that  the  latter  has  not 
been  reproduced  on  the  gramophone.  The  tone  of  the  records 
has  not  the  faintest  resemblance  to  the  real  sound  of  the 
monarch's  voice. 

26 


The  Old  Emperor  Himself 

The  Emperor  abruptly  dropped  the  first  topic  and  asked 
me  whether  I  had  always  known  Italian.  When  I  replied 
that  it  was  my  mother  tongue  and  had  always  been  exclusively 
spoken  at  home,  he  continued  : 

"  Well,  how  is  it  that  you  speak  German  so  perfectly  ?  I 
have  been  told  that  you  published  a  military  book  this  year 
which  has  created  some  stir  in  Germany  and  particularly 
because  it  is  said  to  be  so  well  written." 

I  replied  that  unfortunately  I  had  only  begun  to  learn 
German  when  I  was  ten  and  that  at  first  I  had  found  myself 
faced  with  great,  and  indeed  almost  insurmountable  diffi- 
culties, so  that  subsequently  I  had  made  up  my  mind  to 
perfect  myself  in  a  language  of  such  outstanding  importance 
to  me  by  reading  the  best  German  works  I  could  find,  slow  and 
tedious  business  though  it  was.  The  Emperor  smiled  kindly 
and  closed  with  the  words : 

"  In  that  case  your  efforts  were  crowned  with  complete 
success.  I  am  very  glad  to  hear  how  determined  you  were, 
even  in  your  youth,  to  realize  an  ambition  which  did  you 
credit." 

The  Sovereign  then  gave  me  a  friendly  nod  and, 
continuing  the  circle,  turned  to  my  neighbour. 

I  did  not  then  suspect  that  this  first  meeting  with  my  aged 
Emperor  was  to  be  followed  by  many  others,  and  that  quite 
soon.  A  few  days  later,  however,  I  learned  that  my  appoint- 
ment as  orderly  officer  to  the  Emperor's  Aide-de-Camp, 
General  Count  Paar,  was  imminent.  As  a  matter  of  fact  I 
could  not  take  up  the  post  until  the  end  of  December,  1900, 
as  I  was  sent  on  a  military  mission  which  kept  me  in  Berlin 
for  several  weeks. 

During  my  stay  there  I  went  to  Kiel  on  an  invitation  from 
the  German  Emperor  William  II.  I  remained  there  several 
days  and  saw  a  good  deal  that  was  of  interest  in  connection 
with  the  German  Navy  which  was  just  then  in  the  throes 
of  its  enormous  development. 

27 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

When  I  returned  from  Berlin  to  Vienna  just  before 
Christmas,  1900, 1  had  at  once  to  set  about  taking  up  the  duties 
of  my  new  appointment  in  the  Imperial  Aide- de- Camp's 
Department.  This  was  anything  but  an  easy  matter  for  me, 
because  I  had  had  no  previous  experience  or  knowledge  of  this 
highly  complicated  service  and  found  myself  faced  with  utter 
novelty  in  every  direction.  It  was  in  this  strenuous  but 
stimulating  period  that  I  had  my  first  audience  with  the 
Emperor  Francis  Joseph  on  December  17,  1900.  In 
accordance  with  custom,  I  had  had  my  name  put  down  for 
the  "  general  "  audiences  which  the  Emperor  gave  in  Vienna 
and  Budapest  every  Monday  and  Thursday  from  10-12  in 
the  morning.  An  invitation  to  these  audiences  followed, 
particularly  when  the  individual  in  question  was  known,  as  I 
was,  to  the  Civil  Cabinet,  without  any  difficulty.  All  that 
was  required  was  that  one  should  give  one's  reasons  for  desiring 
an  audience.  The  reason  I  gave  was  my  desire  to  thank  the 
Emperor  for  my  appointment  to  the  Aide- de- Camp's  De- 
partment and  the  necessity  of  reporting  my  return  from 
Germany,  particularly  as  the  Emperor  William  II.  had  twice 
asked  me  at  Kiel  to  convey  his  good  wishes  to  the  Emperor 
Francis  Joseph  and  I  felt  it  my  duty  to  carry  out  these 
instructions  at  the  first  possible  moment. 

It  was  with  pardonable  nervousness  that  I  waited  for  the 
great  moment  in  which  I  was  to  meet  the  old  Emperor  face 
to  face. 

With  beating  heart  I  ascended  what  is  known  in  the 
Hofburg  as  the  "  Chancery  Staircase,"  an  enormous  flight  of 
steps  leading  to  the  ante-room  of  the  audience  chamber.  In 
the  ante-room  itself  I  found  acquaintances  who  were  also 
waiting  to  be  summoned  to  an  audience.  I  soon  overcame 
my  nervousness  after  talking  to  them. 

The  open  door  leading  to  the  staircase  was  guarded  by  a 
non-commissioned  officer  of  the  magnificently  accoutred 
Bodyguard,  halberd  in  hand,  while  a  captain  of  the  Arcieren 

28 


The  Old  Emperor  Himself 

Guard  and  the  Hungarian  Bodyguard  stood  with  drawn  sword 
at  the  door  leading  into  the  Emperor's  audience  chamber, 
which  was  kept  closed  while  each  audience  was  in  progress. 
The  reliefs  for  these  officers  had  already  taken  up  their  places 
at  the  table  on  the  window  side  of  the  room.  The  actual 
work  of  announcing  was  carried  out  by  the  imperial  aide-de- 
camp on  duty  for  the  day.  Officials  from  the  Master  of  the 
Ceremonies'  Department  and  the  necessary  door  guards,  as 
well  as  a  commissioner  of  police  in  full  dress,  were  also 
present.  Everything  went  off  like  clockwork  and  quite 
noiselessly ;  notwithstanding  all  the  people  present,  there  was 
a  silence  which  greatly  intensified  the  impressiveness  of  the 
occasion. 

The  ante-room  itself  was  very  large,  and  on  the  side  facing 
the  inner  court  lit  by  high  windows  between  which  hung 
huge  mirrors.  The  other  walls  were  decorated  with  magnifi- 
cent pictures  representing  scenes  from  the  time  of  the  Em- 
peror Francis  I.,  and  particularly  his  return  to  the  Hofburg 
after  his  entry  into  Paris  in  1814. 

All  this  claimed  my  attention  very  closely  and  helped  me 
over  the  minutes  of  anxious  expectation. 

When  the  imperial  aide-de-camp  on  duty  told  me  that 
it  would  be  my  turn  I  took  my  place  next  to  the  door  guarded 
by  the  officers  of  the  Bodyguard.  As  this  opened  I  bowed 
low  and  entered  the  quite  small  audience  chamber  in  which 
the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph,  in  the  undress  uniform  of  a 
Field-Marshal,  stepped  towards  me  very  erect.  He  came 
from  a  reading-desk  on  his  right,  on  which  a  list  of  the  persons 
appearing  in  audience  lay.  The  Emperor  himself  marked 
the  list  in  blue  pencil  as  each  individual  was  announced.  He 
had  put  down  his  general's  hat  with  the  green  plumes  on  a 
small  table,  a  striking  detail  which  shows  how  the  Emperor 
himself  always  wore  ceremonial  dress  when  he  received  his 
subjects,  in  confirmation  of  his  chivalrous  principle  : 
"  Respect  your  inferiors  if  you  want  them  to  respect  you." 

29 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

While  I  was  reporting  myself  the  Emperor  was  kindly, 
but  critically  looking  me  up  and  down.  From  time  imme- 
morial he  had  attached  the  greatest  importance  to  his  officers 
being  dressed  faultlessly  according  to  regulation.  I  had  of 
course  borne  that  in  mind,  so  that  I  came  out  well  from 
this  searching  scrutiny  by  my  sovereign.  When  I  had  carried 
out  my  commission  by  conveying  the  German  Emperor's 
greetings  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  thanked  nie  in  a  few 
formal  words  and  proceeded  to  put  a  few  questions  about 
my  stay  in  Berlin  and  my  journey  to  Kiel.  He  listened 
quietly  to  my  answers  without  ever  interrupting,  but  I  could 
not  resist  the  impression  that  the  Monarch  was  not  really 
particularly  interested  in  my  experiences. 

Yet  I  had  hardly  finished  before  the  Emperor  remarked, 
more  as  a  conclusion  of  his  own  train  of  thought  than  any- 
thing else  : 

"  So  the  Emperor  William  made  two  speeches  at  Kiel. 
What  did  he  say  ?  " 

I  replied  that  his  speech  on  the  swearing-in  of  the  naval 
recruits  had  been  concerned  principally  with  the  importance 
of  the  soldier's  oath  and  had  ended  with  a  reference  to  the 
high  opinion  which  their  foreign  comrades  had  formed  of 
the  German  troops  during  the  trouble  in  China.  The 
Emperor  William's  speech  on  the  occasion  of  the  officers' 
banquet  in  Kiel,  on  the  other  hand,  had  related  almost 
exclusively  to  the  fact  that  owing  to  the  unexpectedly  rapid 
expansion  of  the  German  Fleet,  which  was  proceeding  at 
full  pressure,  it  was  absolutely  essential  for  its  officers,  who 
would  thus  be  quickly  advanced  to  higher  posts  while 
they  were  still  young,  to  equip  themselves  with  an  intensive 
training  by  personal  study. 

"  So  the  speeches  hardly  touched  political  matters  ?  " 
added  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph. 

I  could  answer  that  with  a  decided  negative,  whereupon 
the  Emperor  continued  : 

30 


The  Old  Emperor  Himself 

"  And  didn't  the  German  Emperor  make  any  reference 
to  the  future,  and  possible  wars  ?  " 

That  too  I  could  deny.     The  Emperor  smiled  and  added  : 

"  That's  a  good  thing  !  Didn't  the  Emperor  William  say 
anything  of  the  *  Yellow  Peril '  ?  " 

My  answer  was  that  the  German  Emperor  had  merely 
indicated  that  this  could  now  be  considered  as  averted. 

Patently  satisfied,  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  concluded 
with  the  words :  "  That  can  only  have  referred  to  China," 
and  dismissed  me  with  a  gracious  bow  and  a  wish,  accompanied 
by  a  friendly  smile,  that  I  should  carry  out  my  duties  in 
my  new  appointment  to  the  best  possible  purpose,  a  matter 
of  which  he  had  no  doubt  after  my  previous  work  in  other 
posts. 

The  topic  of  conversation  casually  touched  upon  by  the 
Emperor  during  the  audience  left  me  with  the  impression 
that  he  saw  a  certain  element  of  danger  in  the  speeches  of 
the  Emperor  William,  and  feared  that  they  might  contribute 
to  the  darkening  of  the  political  horizon,  whereas  he  himself 
attached  enormous  importance  to  seeing  the  peace  of  Europe 
preserved  at  any  price  and  under  all  circumstances. 

My  work  in  the  Imperial  Aide-de-Camp's  Department 
(more  than  fifteen  years),  and  the  mass  of  knowledge  and 
impressions  I  gained  in  that  period  proved  to  me  from  all  I 
directly  saw,  heard  and  read  of  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph, 
that,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  with  him  nothing  was  so  important 
as  the  maintenance  of  peace.  At  all  times  the  aged  ruler 
wholly  devoted  all  his  energies  and  always  set  his  face 
to  secure  that  the  cause  of  peace  should  never  be  endangered 
even  at  the  cost  of  great  sacrifices.  That  was  the  leit  motif 
of  this  sovereign's  whole  being,  the  one  great  principle  to 
which  he  believed  it  was  his  bounden  duty  to  dedicate  his 
life.  It  must  therefore  be  accounted  one  of  the  most 
malevolent  tricks  of  fate  that  he  of  all  men  should 
see   himself   compelled   to   give    the   signal   for   the    world 

31 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

conflagration.  But  his  is  not  the  sole  or  first  case  in  which  we 
find  this  paradox.  History  has  more  than  enough  examples 
to  show.  Think  of  the  predecessors  of  the  Emperor  Francis 
Joseph.  Who  was  a  greater  friend  of  peace  than  the  Emperor 
Leopold  I.,  yet  his  whole  reign,  a  pretty  long  one,  was  marked 
by  continual  wars !  Is  not  this  equally  true  of  the  Emperor 
Francis  I.,  at  any  rate  in  the  first  half  of  his  reign  ? 

I  found  myself  at  home  with  the  complicated  duties  of 
my  new  appointment  much  quicker  and  more  easily  than 
I  had  expected  beforehand.  The  chief  reason  was  that 
in  many  matters  I  abandoned  former  customs  and,  without 
asking  too  many  questions,  drew  up  my  despatches,  memoranda 
and  official  documents  as  seemed  best  to  me,  my  practice 
being  based  on  my  previous  experience,  especially  in  the 
Operations  Department  of  the  General  Staff.  I  soon  realized 
that  I  could  do  this  with  a  light  heart  because  the  Emperor 
welcomed  changes  making  for  greater  simplicity  so  long  as 
they  did  not  violate  those  principles  which  he  considered 
absolutely  vital  for  such  official  routine  as  concerned  himself. 
Those  principles  can  be  expressed  virtually  in  three  words, 
method,  reliability  and  speed.  They  all  go  together  and 
mutually  supplement  one  another. 

I  gradually  realized  how  valuable,  and  indeed  absolutely 
essential,  they  are  where  the  sovereign,  the  highest  authority 
in  the  State,  is  concerned,  and  to-day  I  am  more  than  ever 
convinced  that  without  this  triple  foundation  the  sovereign's 
work  may  not  only  be  wasted  but  a  source  of  danger.  The 
best  proof  of  this  is  what  happened  during  the  short  reign 
of  the  Emperor  Charles. 

The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  was  nothing  short  of  an 
apostle  of  method,  and  in  that  respect  few  men  have  been 
like  him.  In  normal,  as  in  abnormal,  times  his  daily  routine 
appeared  to  be  fixed  down  to  the  slightest  detail.  The 
result  was  that  there  were  no  ambiguities,  uncertainties 
and  sudden  changes  with  all  the  confusion  which  naturally 

32 


The  Old  Emperor  Himself 

follows  them.  All  documents  coming  into  the  Emperor's 
hands  were  subjected  by  him  to  the  most  careful,  detailed 
and  thorough  examination.  He  made  such  remarks  as  were 
necessary,  generally  in  his  own  hand,  and  then  remitted  them 
without  delay  to  the  authorities  who  had  to  carry  out  the 
instructions  given.  I  may  as  well  say  here  that  the  Emperor 
Francis  Joseph  always  preferred  to  give  his  decisions  on  matters 
which  were  put  before  him  in  writing.  To  use  a  current 
expression  he  was  a  "  paper  "  worker.  This  has  frequently 
been  made  a  reproach  to  him  because  it  has  been  thought 
that  he  thereby  lost  personal  touch  with  his  advisers  and 
ministers  and  the  public. 

That  may  be  true  to  a  certain  extent.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  answer  is  that  the  monarch,  especially  in  his  later  years, 
naturally  felt  that  he  needed  to  examine  all  matters  put 
before  him  very  carefully  before  he  came  to  any  decision.  He 
could  do  so  more  safely  and  in  greater  comfort  when  he  had 
written  documents  before  him,  into  which  he  could  go  more 
closely  than  when  the  question  had  only  been  discussed 
orally.  Another  advantage  of  written  communications  was 
that  they  gave  the  Emperor  more  elbow-room,  so  to  speak. 
He  did  not  feel  that  his  own  train  of  thought  was  hampered, 
as  happened  now  and  then  when  people  were  present. 
Lastly,  the  latent  distrust  which  was  natural  to  the  Emperor 
and  an  element  of  his  very  being  was  also  to  a  small  extent 
responsible.  The  written  word  always  seemed  to  him  safer 
than  the  spoken.  For  these  reasons  he  often  required  that 
oral  communications  should  be  supplemented  by  simultaneous 
report  in  writing. 

I  understood  this  method  of  work  only  too  well,  and  even 
in  my  own  department  I  at  once  abandoned  frequent  oral 
conferences  in  favour  of  written  instructions,  circulars  and 
memoranda.  The  result  was  that  before  long  irritability, 
uncertainty,  and  the  frequent  shower  of  questions  vanished 
altogether   and  gave   place  to   quiet   and  helpful  reflection, 

33  3 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

not  at  all  inconsistent  with  serious  and  yet  rapid  work.  The 
change  did  not  pass  unobserved  by  the  Emperor  and  one  day 
he  said  to  me  : 

"  I  see  you  too  believe  in  everything  in  writing.  So 
do  I.  You  can  take  it  from  me  that  in  important  matters 
written  communications  are  not  only  the  safest  but  also 
the  quickest  method.  If  you  really  know  what  you  want 
it  is  easy  to  put  it  down  on  paper ;  but  not  before  !  Most 
men  are  afraid  of  it." 

With  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  method  in  work  went 
hand  in  hand  with  reliability  and  speed.  He  neglected 
nothing  and  never  kept  documents  longer  than  was  absolutely 
necessary  for  him  to  come  to  a  decision.  He  demanded  the 
same  practice  from  others  and  he  could  take  strong  action 
in  cases  where  memoranda  seemed  to  him  to  have  been  pre- 
pared without  sufficient  consideration,  documents  struck  him  as 
hastily  drawn  up,  or  papers  with  obvious  slips  were  put  be- 
fore him.  That  his  intolerance  in  this  respect  was  fully  justified 
is  proved  only  too  clearly  by  the  state  of  things  which  ob- 
tained under  his  successor,  who  apparently  neither  appreciated 
nor  wished  to  appreciate  his  great-uncle's  methods  of  work, 
and  as  a  result  before  long  offered  the  world  the  unhappy 
spectacle  of  the  machine  of  State  almost  coming  to  a  stop 
because  its  highest  authority  never  functioned  properly. 

I  must  not  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  the  Emperor  Francis 
Joseph's  methods  of  work  were  essentially  simple.  There  was 
no  complicated  apparatus  of  elaborate  formalities  in  memor- 
anda and  documents,  no  complex  of  printing  presses,  no  cease- 
less telegraphing  and  telephoning  such  as  are  usually  found  in 
government  departments.  The  minutes  were  written  on 
ordinary  paper,  without  any  prolix  forms  of  address,  and  the 
sovereign  jotted  down  his  instructions  in  ink  or  pencil.  As 
a  rule  he  was  no  friend  of  typewritten  official  documents, 
but  he  soon  accustomed  himself  to  them ;  nothing  was 
further  from  his  mind  than  that  his  personal  wishes  should 

3.4 


The  Old  Emperor  Himself 

hamper  office  routine  even  in  the  slightest  degree.  EQs 
accommodating  spirit  in  this  respect  was  always  noticeable. 

When  he  kept  letters  or  communications  which  were 
only  written  on  one  side  he  used  to  cut  off  the  unused  sheet 
with  his  paper-knife  and  keep  it  by  him  on  his  desk  with  a 
view,  if  necessary,  to  writing  down  informal  instructions, 
which  he  then  carefully  folded  in  an  envelope  and  sent 
to  the  persons  concerned. 

I  pointed  out  in  the  Preface  that  towards  the  end  of  his 
hfe  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  was  left  with  nothing  on 
earth  but  his  duties  with  regard  to  the  transaction  of 
State  business.  He  simply  knew  nothing  of  other  personal 
necessities.  It  was  only  when  the  daily  quota  of  official 
business  had  been  transacted  down  to  its  last  detail  that  the 
Emperor  allowed  himself  occasionally  some  slight  recreation, 
which  in  Vienna  consisted  of  a  short  visit  to  Frau  Katherina 
Schratt — his  only  confidante — or  in  a  walk  with  her  in  the 
garden  of  Schonbrunn  Castle.  At  Ischl  or  Godollo  the  re- 
creations consisted  principally  of  shooting  or  hunting.  But 
even  then  he  gave  up  his  pleasures  readily  and  at  once  when, 
as  happened  not  infrequently,  his  presence  was  required,  or 
was  likely  to  be  required,  in  the  next  few  hours,  even  though 
the  matter  were  of  no  great  importance. 

It  was  this  unflinching  devotion  to  duty  which  produced 
the  phenomenon  that  he  tended  to  become  less  an  individual 
than  a  mere  machine,  a  process  which  increased  as  the  years 
went  by.  At  the  last  he  saw  in  himself  nothing  but  the 
leader  of  his  Empire  and  its  peoples. 

This  "  impersonahty,"  carried  to  its  last  and  logical  con- 
clusion, was  also  responsible  for  the  Emperor's  really 
wonderful  kindness  to  everyone,  even  the  humblest  of  the 
palace  servants.  When  the  sovereign  gave  an  order  he  always 
began  it,  in  marked  contrast  to  the  custom  of  many  other 
monarchs,  with  the  word  "  Please,"  even  in  the  little  notes 
in  which  he  frequently,  often   several   times  a  day,  issued 

35  3* 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

instructions  to  my  department,  even  though  it  was  run  on 
military  lines. 

The  Emperor's  orders  were  clear  and  precise  in  every 
detail.  I  cannot  remember  a  single  occasion  on  which  any 
supplementary  questions  were  necessary.  He  always  knew 
exactly  what  he  wanted. 

Further,  he  always  thought  of  everything,  without  hints  or 
suggestions  from  his  ministers  and  officials  being  necessary, 
and  even  the  smallest  details  were  clearly  fixed  in  his  mind, 
a  result  of  his  wide  experience  which  was  far  greater  than 
that  of  any  of  his  advisers  and  in  which  he  found  a  never  fail- 
ing support. 

The  Emperor's  outward  appearance  presented  a  picture 
of  the  most  meticulous  correctitude.  He  was  no  friend  of 
the  so-called  "  easy  "  clothing.  It  was  only  when  he  went 
shooting  that  he  wore  a  sports  suit,  which  may  have 
looked  a  little  old-fashioned  but  none  the  less  was  extremely 
practical.  Otherwise  he  was  accustomed  to  appear  in 
uniform,  and  always  when  receptions  or  drives  were  in  the 
daily  programme.  Only  in  the  early  morning  or  after 
dinner  in  the  evening  did  he  exchange  his  uniform  for  a 
garment  quite  peculiar  to  himself,  a  short  cloak  which  came 
to  the  knees  and  was  not  unlike  the  Prussian  military  cloak. 
The  Emperor  felt  himself  entirely  at  his  ease  in  this  "  house- 
coat," which  was  very  comfortable  and  gave  good  protection.* 
He  hardly  ever  wore  civilian  dress.  I  only  saw  him  in 
it  once,  and  that  was  in  March,  1901,  when  he  travelled 
incognito  to  Munich  for  the  celebrations  on  the  occasion 
of  the  Prince  Regent  Luitpold's  eightieth  birthday.  He 
was  a  model  of  correction  in  his  dress  as  usual,  and  looked 
extremely  well  in  his  long  black  frock  coat.    Yet  the  Emperor 

•  This  wa»  anything  but  the  stock  cloak.  It  was  a  very  individual  article  of  dress 
made  to  the  Emperor's  special  instructions.  As  long  as  the  regulations  prescribed 
black  coats  the  Sovereign  wore  a  black  "house-coat,"  but  in  the  autumn  of  1909  he 
took  to  wearing  a  light  grey  one. 

36 


The  Old  Emperor  Himself 

Francis  Joseph  looked  far  better  in  uniform,  perhaps  because 
we  were  so  used  to  seeing  him  in  it  that  we  hardly  knew  him 
in  anything  else. 

Although  the  Emperor  attached  the  greatest  importance 
to  being  a  model  of  neatness  and  smartness  (I  use  the  word 
advisedly)  in  his  dress,  he  not  only  took  the  greatest  pains 
to  avoid  the  ordinary  exaggerations  himself  but  could  not 
tolerate  them  in  others.  He  regarded  even  patent  shoes 
and  kid  gloves  with  horror.  He  always  liked  well-blacked 
top  boots  and  washleather  gloves.  He  also  hated  high 
collars  for  officers  and  trousers  with  exaggerated  creases. 
They  struck  him  as  foppish. 

Notwithstanding  this,  and  perhaps  because  of  it,  thanks 
to  his  well-groomed  appearance,  the  Emperor  always  gave 
one  the  impression  of  a  perfect  gentleman. 

The  Emperor  attached  the  greatest  importance  to  the 
most  punctilious  observance  of  the  military  dress  regulations 
by  all  who  appeared  before  him.  No  one  was  more  particular 
in  that  respect  than  himself.  In  this  matter  he  was  in- 
exorable. Discussion  with  him  was  quite  useless.  A  little 
incident  which  I  once  witnessed  affords  a  striking  example. 

By  way  of  explanation  I  should  say  that  in  the  Austro- 
Hungarian  army  the  "  blouse,"  a  loose  jacket  without  buttons 
and  with  four  pockets  in  front,  had  been  introduced  as  undress 
uniform  in  the  field  and  for  off-duty  occasions  in  place  of 
the  regular  uniform.  At  first  the  sleeves  of  this  blouse 
were  open  at  the  end  and  could  be  closed  simply  by  buttons. 
Subsequently  the  general  fashion  was  adopted  and  the 
sleeves  were  made  closed  though  buttons  on  the  sleeve  were 
still  prescribed  by  the  dress  regulations.  As  the  button  had 
now  no  decorative  value  and  served  no  purpose  whatever 
the  miUtary  tailors  gradually  began  to  make  the  garments 
without  them.  Thus  before  long  they  were  nearly  all 
without  buttons  on  the  sleeve,  contrary  to  regulations. 

During  the  revie;\ra  of  the  troops  in  Bruck  camp  on  the 

37 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

Leitha  an  orderly  officer  was  detached  from  the  units  sta- 
tioned there  for  duty  with  the  Emperor,  as  provided  by 
the  regulations. 

According  to  field  regulations  this  officer  had  to  wear 
his  "  march  "  dress,  i.e.,  the  "  blouse,"  and  this  applied  to 
the  occasions  on  which  he  was  invited  to  the  imperial  table. 

In  June,  1904,  a  certain  infantry  lieutenant  attached 
for  this  orderly  duty  was  at  the  Emperor's  table.  As  dinner 
proceeded  the  Emperor  scrutinized  him  very  carefully  and 
a  close  observer  could  not  fail  to  observe  that  the  sovereign's 
brow  began  to  cloud.  When  we  rose  from  table  and 
adjourned  to  the  garden,  where  the  Emperor  usually  talked 
to  his  guests,  Francis  Joseph  went  straight  up  to  the  lieu- 
tenant and  thundered  at  him  :  "  What  do  you  mean  by  not 
being  dressed  according  to  regulations  ?  "  The  officer  turned 
deathly  pale  in  his  utter  amazement ;  he  was  deprived  of 
speech  and  simply  stared  at  his  sovereign.  It  was  only  too 
plain  that  he  had  not  the  remotest  idea  to  what  the  Emperor's 
angry  remark  referred.  The  Emperor  understood  and 
continued  even  more  angrily  :  "  You've  no  buttons  on  your 
sleeves.  Didn't  you  know  it  ?  "  The  lieutenant  glanced 
desperately  at  his  sleeve,  on  which  there  were  no  buttons, 
and  replied  in  a  broken,  trembling  voice :.  "  No,  your 
Majesty,  indeed  I  did  not ! "  Quivering  with  rage  the 
Emperor  exclaimed  :  "  Then  you  don't  know  the  regula- 
tions.    It's  monstrous !  " 

His  speech  was  clear  and  he  chose  his  words  well.  He 
spoke  softly  and  thoughtfully.  He  always  kept  himself 
well  under  control,  and  the  occasions  on  which  he  allowed 
his  anger  at  some  particular  occurrence  to  overcome 
him  were  the  greatest  rarities.  When  his  momentary  rage 
had  evaporated  you  would  see  the  Emperor,  a  man  of  fine 
feeling,  endeavouring  to  remove  the  impression  of  having 
half-consciously  taken  the  wrong  tack  by  doubling  his  kindness 
towards  the  victim  of  his  outburst. 

38 


The  Old  Emperor  Himself 

I  only  saw  the  Emperor  really  roused  twice,  and  curiously 
enough  on  the  same  occasion  and  for  the  same  reason.  I 
am  referring  to  the  reviews  at  Budapest  in  the  spring  of  1909 
and  1910.  At  these  reviews  the  carriages  of  the  Archduchesses 
were  supposed  to  follow  the  Emperor's  suite  as  he  rode  down 
the  front.  They  then  drew  up  on  the  flank  of  the  hindmost 
file  and  as  soon  as  the  Emperor  took  up  his  place  at  the 
saluting  point  they  came  up  on  his  left.  It  was  the  Emperor's 
express  wish  that  this  should  be  done  so  that  the  ladies  should 
get  a  good  view  of  the  troops  as  they  marched  past  their 
royal  master.  This  manoeuvre  with  the  state  carriages, 
which  offered  no  particular  difficulty  in  itself,  never  really 
came  off,  even  in  Vienna,  at  any  rate  in  the  Emperor's  opinion. 
At  Budapest  in  particular  it  was  an  eyesore  to  him  because 
the  "  Generalswiese  "  on  the  Budapest  Plain  which  was  used 
as  parade  ground  was  anything  but  large  and  utterly  unsuitable 
for  this  purpose.  It  was  thus  an  easy  matter  for  the  carriages 
of  the  Archduchesses,  after  the  Emperor  had  ridden  down  the 
ranks,  to  get  mixed  up  with  the  detachments  assembling  for 
the  march-past  and  thus  to  fail  to  reach  their  posts  next  to 
the  Emperor's  saluting  point  as  swiftly  and  automatically 
as  he  desired. 

The  consequent  confusion  threw  the  Emperor  into  a 
terrible  rage.  He  began  to  storm  at  the  officers  and  coach- 
men in  charge  of  these  carriages  and  in  such  a  sharp  and 
ruthless  tone  that  the  men  were  simply  terrified  and  completely 
lost  their  heads,  so  that  the  result  was  a  hopeless  mix-up.  It 
was  only  the  arrival  of  the  first  detachment  at  the  saluting 
point  which  put  some  check  on  the  unbridled  expressions  of 
imperial  rage  and  it  was  not  assuaged  for  some  considerable 
time,  so  that  even  the  troops  marching  past  were  unfortunately 
repeatedly  aware  of  it.  It  was  not  a  very  edifying  spectacle, 
particularly  as  we  could  never  really  find  out  how  the  carriages 
of  the  Archduchesses  should  have  been  handled  in  order  to 
carry  out  the  Emperor's  instructions  exactly.     The  upshot 

39 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

was  that  I  could  not  get  rid  of  a  suspicion  that  the  Emperor's 
only  object  was  to  show  that  he  disliked  having  ladies  with  him 
at  a  military  manoeuvre.  Too  chivalrous  definitely  to  forbid 
it,  he  thought  perhaps  that  the  method  I  have  referred  to, 
certainly  not  in  the  best  of  taste,  might  bring  about  a  change. 
I  may  be  wrong  about  this,  but  this  impression  thrust  itself 
upon  me  as  I  witnessed  the  disagreeable  and,  to  speak  honestly, 
totally  unnecessary  scene. 

Apart  from  these  occasions  the  Emperor's  behaviour  to 
everyone  and  at  all  times  was  marked  by  the  most  distinguished 
courtesy.  This  was  lucky  for  everybody  who  was  in  close 
contact  with  the  Emperor  himself  for  one  word  of  blame, 
disapproval  or  reprimand  from  the  sovereign,  however  trivial, 
might  easily  be  fatal  to  the  individual  concerned  because  high 
officials  in  the  Emperor's  entourage,  or  some  superior,  imme- 
diately construed  the  reproof  as  a  moral  sentence  of  death 
if  they  heard  or  heard  of  it.  With  very  few  exceptions  they 
lost  no  time  in  showing  that  they  were  more  catholic  than  the 
Pope  himself.  Nothing  was  further  from  the  Emperor's 
intentions  and  when,  subsequently,  usually  quite  casually, 
he  heard  of  strong  and  not  infrequently  unjust  measures 
being  taken  against  some  particular  individual  on  the  ground 
of  his  having  been  blamed  or  censured  by  the  sovereign,  he 
had  the  decision  quashed  at  once  and  the  matter  put  right. 
"  Good  heavens,  I  never  meant  that  1  "  I  once  heard  him 
exclaim  angrily  on  one  of  these  occasions.  "  Mustn't  I  do 
anything  h\it  praise  ?  If  I  don't  happen  to  approve  something 
entirely  now  and  then  it's  not  a  hanging  matter  and  there's 
no  need  to  start  cutting  the  defaulter's  head  off !  " 

The  Emperor's  splendid  habit  of  mind  also  revealed 
itself  in  his  unparalleled  punctuality  which  he  considered 
the  politesse  des  rots  and  observed  as  his  first  law  on  all 
occasions.  To  avoid  offending  against  this  principle  a 
detailed  programme  was  worked  out  for  all  his  journeys, 
reviews  and  other  affairs  at  which  he  appeared  in  an  official 

40 


The  Old  Emperor  Himself 

capacity.  In  these  programmes  every  phase  of  the  event 
was  most  carefully  fixed  according  to  a  time-table  cal- 
culated to  the  minute.  In  the  same  way,  when  the  Emperor 
had  to  travel  to  some  place  for  some  event  on  his  programme 
court  officials  made  the  journey  beforehand  for  the  purpose 
of  fixing  times,  and  it  was  only  after  this  "  rehearsal  "  that 
the  time  of  departure  and  the  length  of  the  journey  were 
decided  upon  so  that  the  punctual  arrival  of  the  sovereign 
at  a  given  spot  was  thus  officially  guaranteed.  This  hourly 
itinerary,  which  was  drawn  up  in  the  Aide-de-Camp's  Depart- 
ment, was  laid  before  the  Emperor  on  the  previous  day. 
He  gave  himself  time  and  leisure  to  read  it  through  carefully 
and  thoroughly  digest  it,  so  that  in  accordance  with  his 
immemorial  custom  he  could  carry  it  out  to  the  smallest 
detail. 

In  addition  the  Emperor  made  notes  of  all  reviews, 
journeys,  special  audiences  and  unusual  events  in  his  day's 
work,  generally  on  his  desk  calendar  at  which  he  always 
glanced  first  thing  in  the  morning  so  that  he  could  know  at 
once  what  were  his  principal  engagements  for  the  day. 

But  there  was  another  kind  of  note-making  which  was 
peculiar  to  the  Emperor  and  it  furnishes  a  remarkable 
reflection  of  his  habit  of  mind.  He  had  the  habit  of  jotting 
down  a  name  or  a  few  words  on  his  writing  pad  with  a  view 
to  reminding  himself  of  matters  which  had  no  fixed  day 
or  hour  but  were  casual  or  referred  to  individuals.  In 
accordance  with  a  youthful  practice  of  the  sovereign,  this 
pad  consisted  merely  of  a  folded  piece  of  coarse,  white 
scribbling  paper  which  was  changed  every  week.  He  would 
have  nothing  to  do  with  the  elegant  tablets  which  were  so 
frequently  presented  to  him.  He  always  stuck  to  his  plain, 
broad  sheet  and  the  notes  he  jotted  down  on  it  were  his 
aide-memoire.  I  was  once  casually  in  the  Emperor's 
cabinet  at  Schonbrunn — it  may  have  been  somewhere  about 
the    middle    of    September,    1903 — and    Spannbauer,    his 

41 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

servant,  was  dusting  the  desk.  Spannbauer  beckoned  to  me 
mysteriously  and  showed  me  on  the  writing  pad  the  following 
words  written  very  small  by  the  Emperor  :  "  Wekerle — here 
again  already — ach  Gott ! — not  this  time  !  no  !  no  !  .  .  ." 
It  was  not  difficult  to  imagine  with  what  reluctance  the 
sovereign  brought  himself  to  call  upon  the  services  of  Doctor 
Alexander  Wekerle,  the  Hungarian  Minister-President. 
After  this  experience  and  several  more  of  the  same  kind,  I 
pressed  the  Imperial  attendants  to  see  that  when  the  pad 
was  exchanged  the  old  ones  were  not  casually  thrown  about 
but  immediately  burnt.  I  extended  this  order  even  to  the 
contents  of  the  Emperor's  waste-paper  basket  as  they  too 
might  frequently  have  enabled  outsiders  to  draw  undesirable 
conclusions  as  to  the  monarch's  doings.  That  this  had 
never  been  the  case  was  due  wholly  and  solely  to  the  reliability 
and  unfailing  discretion  of  the  Emperor's  personal  servants. 
I  myself  was  once  surprised  by  a  note  on  the  Emperor's 
writing  pad.  On  August  29,  1906,  Egger,  the  servant  on 
duty,  told  me  confidentially  that  the  Emperor  had  written 
my  name  on  the  writing  pad  that  day.  I  was  quite  as- 
tounded, as  I  could  not  imagine  the  reason  and  when  I  asked 
Count  Paar  whether  any  change  was  in  store  for  me  he 
replied  that  he  knew  nothing  whatever  about  it.  Great 
and  pleasant  was  my  astonishment  when  on  September  6, 
1906,  the  Emperor,  as  a  reward  for  my  six  years'  work  as 
orderly  officer  to  Count  Paar,  spontaneously  appointed  me 
his  Aide-de-Camp — a  brand  new  appointment — and  added 
to  it  by  giving  me  the  Order  of  the  Iron  Crown,  3rd  Class. 
Hence  the  note  on  the  desk  I  have  mentioned.  I  could  not 
refrain  from  asking  the  Emperor  to  give  me  the  paper  as  a 
souvenir,  and  he  gladly  complied  with  my  request  with  the 
kind  words  :    "  Certainly,  if  there's  nothing  else  you  want." 

As  a  matter  of  fact  even  these  rough  and  ready  notes 
were  anything  but  a  necessity  to  the  Emperor.  Even  in 
extreme  old  age  he  possessed  an  unfailing,  unique  and  really 

42 


The  Old  Emperor  Himself 

phenomenal  memory  which  retained  the  smallest  details 
once  they  had  been  taken  in.  It  was  not  only  astounding 
but  positively  oppressive  to  hear  the  Emperor  recite  details 
of  incidents  which  occurred  in  the  Fifties  and  Sixties  of  the 
last  century  or  give  figures  and  occasionally  even  the  number 
of  a  file  relating  to  matters  decades  old — and  that  with  a 
precision  and  accuracy  which  amazed  everyone.  In  dealing 
with  ministers  and  others  in  conference  a  well-trained 
memory  which  could  make  short  work  of  omissions  and  un- 
certainties was  a  deadly  weapon  in  the  old  monarch's  hands. 
At  such  conference  oflftcials  had  to  go  appropriately  armed, 
so  to  speak,  if  they  wished  to  avoid  the  humiliation  of  being 
put  right  by  their  sovereign. 

In  my  whole  life  I  have  never  known  so  infallible  a  memory 
as  the  Emperor's.  The  only  man  who  even  approached  him 
in  that  respect  was  King  Edward  VII.  of  England,  who 
once  gave  me  a  great  shock  just  after  his  arrival  at  Ischl  in 
August,  1905,  by  a  remark  which  showed  me  very  clearly 
that,  like  the  Emperor,  he  not  only  forgot  nothing  but 
let  no  detail  pass  unremarked. 

In  August,  1903,  two  years  before,  I  had  returned  from 
Ischl  to  Vienna  with  serious  inflammation  of  the  lungs  and 
had  only  just  begun  to  convalesce  when  King  Edward  VII. 
paid  his  first  visit  to  the  Emperor  in  Vienna  in  the  early 
days  of  September.  I  was  still  hardly  able  to  stand  up,  but 
there  was  nothing  for  it  but  to  get  back  to  my  oflfice  to  deal 
with  the  mass  of  work  the  King  of  Great  Britain's  presence 
involved.  No  one  else  could  take  it  over  for  me,  particularly 
as  I  was  one  of  the  few  men  about  the  Emperor  who  could 
speak  English  fluently. 

In  consequence  of  my  condition  I  did  not  come  into 
direct  personal  contact  with  the  King.  To  avoid  a  recur- 
rence of  my  lung  trouble  I  more  or  less  confined  myself  to 
dealing  exclusively  with  oflice  business  and  took  no  part 
in    the    gaieties    at    court.      Yet    for    all    that    the    King 

43 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

presented   me  with   a   decoration.     It  was  given  me  in  his 
name  and  with  his  best  wishes  for  my  recovery. 

In  August,  1905,  on  King  Edward's  arrival  in  Ischl, 
the  Emperor  presented  his  small  suite  to  the  British  sovereign 
who  had  a  short  conversation  in  German  with  everyone 
present.  When  it  came  to  my  turn,  however,  the  King 
immediately  asked  me  in  English  :  "  Have  you  quite  recovered 
from  your  lung  trouble  ?  I  hope  it  left  no  after-effects." 
At  the  moment  I  did  not  know  what  the  King  was  referring 
to  as  I  had  forgotten  all  about  my  illness.  I  had  to  cast 
my  mind  back  before  I  recollected  that  I  had  had  an  attack 
of  inflammation  of  the  lungs  at  the  time  of  his  first  visit. 

For  a  long  time  I  tried  hard  to  find  out  to  what  the  old 
Emperor  owed  his  prodigious  memory.  It  was  only  gradually 
that  I  came  to  the  conclusion  that  it  was  the  result  not  only 
of  the  most  determined  and  diligent  practice  from  his  earliest 
youth,  but  even  more  of  his  highly  characteristic  conviction 
that  it  was  his  duty  to  let  absolutely  nothing  pass  unnoticed. 
With  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  everything  about  him, 
including  his  memory,  had  to  be  unchallenged,  unchallenge- 
able and  a  toute  epreuve  ! 

While  on  this  topic  I  must  not  forget  to  mention  the 
Emperor's  remarkably  clear  handwriting  which  was  not 
only  extremely  legible  even  in  the  pettiest  pencil  note  but 
a  real  model  of  neatness,  and  that  though  the  aged 
Monarch's  eyesight  was  to  a  certain  extent  failing  in  the 
period  in  which  my  duties  brought  me  in  immediate  contact 
with  him.  He  used  to  wear  horn  spectacles  when  working 
at  his  desk,  and  usually  carried  tortoise-shell  pince-nez  for 
use  in  reading. 

The  principle  of  rigid  punctuality  was  also  the  foundation 
of  the  Emperor's  normal  daily  time-table  to  which  he 
adhered  strictly,  if  at  all  feasible,  not  only  in  Vienna,  SchOn- 
brunn  and  Budapest,  but  during  his  annual  summer  residence 
in  Ischl  and  even  when  travelling. 

44 


The  Old  Emperor  Himself 

At  a  very  early  hour — shortly  after  4  a.m. — the  Emperor 
rose,  took  a  hasty  breakfast,  generally  nothing  more  than  a 
glass  of  milk,  and  then  worked  alone  till  7  or  7.30.  From 
that  hour  he  was  engaged  in  the  usual  daily  conferences 
with  the  Chiefs  of  the  Cabinet  and  other  officials,  the  Chiefs 
of  the  Military  Cabinet  always  coming  first.  The  conferences 
usually  ended  at  10  o'clock  and  then  came  the  receptions 
of  ministers  and  native  and  foreign  dignitaries.  These 
audiences  with  the  sovereign  often  lasted  until  5  or  6  in 
the  afternoon  with  a  quite  short  break  for  his  simple 
luncheon,  served  on  a  table  in  his  room  between  12  and 
12.30.  The  Emperor  then  dined,  alone  or  with  guests,  and 
this  was  the  only  meal  served  formally  at  table.  When 
this  was  over  he  went  on  with  any  work  he  had  left  and 
retired  for  the  night  at  8  or  8.30. 

His  bed  was  merely  an  iron  field  bed  which,  like  all  the 
other  equipment  of  the  imperial  bed-chamber,  produced 
an  impression  not  merely  of  utter  simplicity  but  of  down- 
right penury.  A  far  higher  degree  of  comfort  was  to  be 
found  in  most  bourgeois  circles.  In  everything  relating  to 
his  personal  habits  the  Emperor  revealed  an  unparalleled 
modesty.  He  had  practically  no  personal  requirements  and 
lived  no  better  than  the  middle  classes  in  the  Empire  so 
that  there  was  a  certain  contrast  between  his  private  life 
and  his  extraordinarily  lofty  conception  of  his  royal  dignity, 
a  conception  on  which  he  always  insisted. 

The  old  Emperor's  spartan  simplicity  was  the  unshakable 
foundation  of  his  wonderful  health,  powers  of  resistance  and 
extraordinary  vigour  in  the  last  years  of  his  life.  It  was 
only  in  1906  that  those  attacks  of  bronchial  catarrh  began 
which  frequently  recurred,  so  that  he  was  never  without  it 
until  his  death.  Personally  I  think  it  was  caused  by  his 
habit  of  having  himself  rubbed  down  with  cold  water  every 
morning  immediately  after  getting  up.  His  constitution 
no  longer  had  sufficient  energy  to  produce  a  speedy  glow 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

and  many  a  time  he  froze  for  hours  after  the  rubbing  down. 
At  last  his  physician,  Dr.  Kerzl,  advised  him  to  give  it  up, 
but  the  Emperor  simply  refused  to  do  without  the  cold 
friction  which  had  become  a  necessity  to  him  even  though 
it  had  already  become  wholly  intolerable. 

This  perhaps  peculiar  daily  time-table  meant  that  the 
Emperor  was  always  reluctant  to  sit  up  and  only  did  so 
when  special  events,  such  as  court  banquets,  balls,  repre- 
sentative visits  to  theatres  and  concerts  and  so  on,  made  it 
absolutely  necessary.  Naturally  he  found  these  exceptional 
occasions  a  more  or  less  unpleasant  trial. 

In  view  of  this  life-long  habit  it  was  usually  considered 
impossible  to  lay  even  urgent  communications  before  the 
Emperor  after  eight  o'clock  in  the  evening  because  it 
meant  waking  him,  a  course  on  which  no  one  dare  venture 
unless  the  matter  was  extremely  important,  quite  unexpected, 
and  so  urgent  as  not  even  to  permit  the  slightest  delay. 

Some  of  the  officials  frequently  and  ruefully  complained 
about  its  being  impossible  to  get  the  Emperor  to  deal  with 
anything  after  eight  o'clock  in  the  evening.  These  com- 
plaints implied  that  it  would  have  been  far  better  if  the 
sovereign  had  started  his  day's  work  later  so  that  he  could 
also  have  concluded  it  later. 

That  was  never  my  opinion.  I  consider  that  the  Em- 
peror was  perfectly  right  in  working  on  the  time-table  he 
adopted.  Apart  from  the  fact  that  it  was  based  on  the 
time-honoured  principle  that  "  the  early  bird  catches  the 
worm,"  by  receiving  the  reports  of  his  departmental  chiefs 
early  in  the  morning  he  gave  himself  a  chance  of  issuing 
all  relevant  instructions  to  them  or  their  subordinates  with- 
out difficulty  or  overhaste  the  same  day.  Further,  the 
Emperor  normally  expected  that  the  minutes  of  the  orders 
he  gave  in  the  morning  conferences,  formally  drawn  up  and 
merely  awaiting  his  signature,  should  be  laid  before  him  either 
at  two  o'clock  or  five  o'clock  in  the  afternoon.     At  those 

46 


The  Old  Emperor  Himself 

hours  the  so-called  "  portfolios,"  locked  pouches  with  the 
relevant  and  quite  informal  files,  were  always  brought  to  his 
room. 

The  advantages  of  such  a  business-like  system  had  always 
made  themselves  felt  and  all  the  ministers  and  depart- 
mental heads  considered  it  a  real  blessing  that  their  sovereign 
was  at  any  rate  a  worker  who  "  left  nothing  undone." 

How  fatal  the  converse  could  be  is  proved  well  enough 
by  the  two-years'  reign  of  Francis  Joseph's  successor,  a  reign 
in  which  one  could  never  know  for  certain,  when  papers  were 
sent  to  the  sovereign  as  final  authority  for  approval  or 
decision,  when  he  would  send  them  on  for  further  action. 
The  result  was  that  matters  which  ought  to  have  been  settled 
immediately  without  the  slightest  delay  were  hung  up, 
because  the  Emperor  would  not  take  time  to  peruse  and 
sign  the  file  as  custom  required.  I  need  hardly  say  that 
fatal  consequences  were  only  too  easily  involved. 

The  orderly  and  systematic  speed  with  which  the  Emperor 
worked  was  an  absolutely  priceless  benefit  to  the  nations 
over  which  he  ruled,  though  at  first  sight  perhaps  they  did 
not  seem  sufficiently  to  appreciate  the  strength  of  will  which 
made  it  possible.  The  Emperor's  admirable  method  of  work 
was  not  only  an  inspiring  example  to  the  higher  functionaries. 
It  was,  of  course,  adopted  by  the  departmental  heads,  the 
leading  civil  and  military  authorities,  and  through  them 
inevitably  communicated  mechanically  to  all  grades  of  the 
bureaucratic  hierarchy  down  to  the  humblest  officials  who 
were  in  direct  contact  with  the  public. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  the  Austrian  civil  service,  in  virtue  of 
its  unimpeachable  integrity  and  swift  but  thorough  and 
reliable  methods,  enjoyed  a  prestige  and  reputation  which 
extended  far  beyond  the  frontiers  of  the  Danube  Monarchy. 
Many  a  time  have  eminent  and  experienced  foreigners  told 
me  their  decided  opinion  that  only  the  English,  German 
and  Austrian  civil  services  were  well  organized,  so  that  they 

47 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

functioned  smoothly  and  swiftly  and  could  always  be  relied 
on.  That  this  was  true  of  the  Austrian  bureaucracy  was 
due  to  no  small  extent  to  the  Emperor's  personal  influence, 
as  I  could  see  for  myself  during  the  years  I  spent  in  the  Aides- 
de-Camp's  office.  The  Emperor  knew  it  and  quite  properly 
was  not  a  little  proud  of  it.  He  once  said  that  he  regarded 
a  reliable  administration  as  one  of  the  strongest  pillars  of 
national  prosperity.  He  even  went  so  far  as  to  hold  that 
the  sole  raison  d'etre  of  the  bureaucracy  was  to  do  all  in  its 
power  to  preserve  and  further  the  interests  of  the  Haps- 
burgs  and  at  any  cost  avoid  injuring  them.  He  demanded 
hard,  intelligent  and  practical  work  from  his  officials  and 
was  never  so  angry  as  when  he  saw  hollow  phrases  or  empty 
talk  delay  or  take  the  place  of  practical  achievement.  Such 
inaction  struck  the  Emperor  in  his  tenderest  spot  and  he 
would  never  tolerate  it.  It  meant  woe  for  someone  if  com- 
plaints of  that  kind  reached  his  ear.  "  God  help  us,"  he 
once  said,  "  if  we  ever  fall  into  the  ways  of  the  Latin  races. 
Their  officialdom  is  narrow-minded  and  antiquated,  in- 
capable of  higher  things  or  any  fruitful  work.  It  is  tied 
and  bound  with  red  tape  and  often  drives  the  nation  to 
desperation.  It  has  always  surprised  me  that  the  Latin 
races  of  all  nations,  with  their  quick,  sparkling  intellects  and 
high  civilization,  should  allow  their  public  and  private  life 
to  be  strangled  by  a  body  of  officials  who  have  no  notion  of 
organization,  who  continue  unreflecting  in  the  same  old 
paths  and  are  incapable  of  anything  but  appallingly  tedious, 
if  not  hopelessly  unreal,  and  therefore  unreliable  methods. 
The  nightmare  of  uncertainty  must  haunt  them  all  the  time. 
One  of  my  most  productive  tasks  has  been  to  prevent  a 
similar  state  of  things  here  !  " 

The  element  of  "  reliability "  was  assisted  in  a  very 
material  degree  by  the  truly  exemplary  reserve  which  the 
old  Emperor  displayed  in  all  his  conversation.  The  rare 
caution  which  the  Emperor  made  his  rule  never  confused  his 

48 


The  Old  Emperor  Himself 

colleagues,  as  they  knew  well  enough  that  they  would  never  be 
let  down  by  impulsive  expressions  of  the  sovereign,  because 
there  never  were  any.  Francis  Joseph  always  spoke  ex 
cathedra^  even  in  private  conversation,  an  eloquent  proof  of 
the  degree  to  which  he  kept  himself  in  hand.  He  knew  well 
enough  what  a  sovereign's  word  meant  and  that  a  casual 
loose  remark  starts  wild  rumours  and  cannot  be  withdrawn 
and  disavowed.  The  old  Emperor  never  exposed  either  him- 
self or  his  advisers  to  any  such  danger. 

He  also  made  it  his  duty  to  listen  to  the  reports  of  his 
colleagues  quietly  and  patiently.  He  formed  his  opinion 
while  the  report  was  being  made  and  then  clothed  it  in  care- 
fully chosen  words.  When  it  was  finished  he  came  to  some 
final  conclusion  and  the  ultimate  decision  was  always  his. 
That  was  his  invariable  rule.  On  the  other  hand  he  always 
gave  his  officials  the  right  to  express  a  free  and  frank  opinion 
on  the  various  matters  or  proposals  they  put  before  him, 
though  he  was  unwavering  in  his  demand  that  this  should  be 
done  with  the  necessary  respect  for  the  sovereign.  He  simply 
would  not  tolerate  temperamental  outbursts,  unseemly  ex- 
pressions— however  well  meant — and  gesticulations  for  the 
purposes  of  demonstration  in  his  presence.  He  was  extremely 
sensitive  on  this  point  and  behaviour  in  his  presence  which 
overstepped  the  permitted  limits  to  the  slightest  degree  he 
never  forgot.  Even  loud  conversation  or  boisterous  laughter 
at  his  table  or  in  the  subsequent  conversation  were  always 
punished  with  a  reproving  glance  and  he  made  a  note  for  all 
time  of  all  those  who  transgressed  in  that  way.  The  Emperor 
was  certainly  no  friend  of  excessive  hilarity  and  equally  dis- 
liked those  somewhat  too  lively  stories  which  inexperienced 
individuals  occasionally  thought  they  could  put  to  the  best 
use  at  meals  or  on  other  occasions  when  the  Emperor  was 
present.  Francis  Joseph  regarded  such  behaviour  as  dis- 
courtesy to  his  imperial  dignity. 

Associated  with  this,  perhaps,  was  a  peculiarity  of  the 

49  4 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

old  Emperor  which  struck  me  at  once — the  high  importance 
he  attached  to  the  act  of  shaking  hands.  The  only  persons 
with  whom  he  shook  hands  were  the  highest  political  func- 
tionaries and  military  officers,  members  of  the  highest  nobility, 
whether  they  had  an  official  position  or  were  still  too  young 
to  hold  one — the  Emperor  made  no  distinction — foreign 
diplomatists  and  distinguished  visitors  and  his  Aides-de- 
Camp.     No  one  else  was  thought  worthy  of  his  hand-shake. 

Occasionally  this  habit  found  expression  in  a  way  which 
almost  produced  an  impression  that  the  sovereign  really 
meant  to  humiliate  or  even  insult  some  individual — the 
very  last  thing  in  the  world  he  meant.  When  the  Emperor 
conversed  with  his  guests  after  court  luncheons  or  dinners 
it  often  happened  that  distinguished  staff  officers  of  the 
higher  ranks  stood  between  members  of  the  aristocracy  in  the 
circle.  As  he  came  to  each  aristocrat  he  at  once  put  out 
his  hand,  but  he  did  not  shake  hands  with  the  officers ;  in 
fact  he  almost  seemed  careful  not  to  do  so,  and  they  had  some 
reason  for  thinking  themselves  passed  over.  I  frequently 
heard  that  this  had  given  rise  to  painful  misunderstandings 
and  even  severe  criticism.  The  Emperor,  of  course,  was  quite 
indifferent ;  he  adhered  to  his  view  that  for  him  to  shake 
hands  was  an  altogether  exceptional  mark  of  esteem  and  that 
he  must  not  be  too  free  with  it. 

During  my  sixteen  years'  service  in  the  Aides-de-Camp's 
department  Francis  Joseph  shook  hands  with  me  once  only. 
That  was  on  May  9,  191 5,  when  I  reported  myself  at  Schon- 
brunn  to  thank  him  for  my  promotion  to  the  rank  of  Major- 
General.  No  one  else  was  present,  to  my  great  regret,  for  I 
thought  that  this  mark  of  honour  from  the  Emperor  only 
produced  its  full  effect  in  the  presence  of  witnesses. 

Great  was  my  surprise,  therefore,  when  Count  Paar  con- 
gratulated me  warmly  next  day.  To  my  amazed  question  : 
"  On  what  ?  "  Paar  repHed  kindly  :  "  On  the  Emperor's 
shaking  hands  with  you,  of  course  !     Isn't  that  worth  con- 

50 


The  Old  Emperor  Himself 

gratulations  ?  "  When  I  said  that  no  one  knew  anything 
about  it  Paar  replied  with  a  smile  :  "  Oh,  but  the  Emperor 
told  me  this  morning  that  he'd  shaken  hands  with  you  when 
you  reported  your  promotion  to  General  yesterday." 

The  incident  once  more  enabled  me  fully  to  appreciate 
the  great  importance  Francis  Joseph  attached  to  shaking 
hands  and  that  he  regarded  it  as  in  no  sense  a  mere  formal 
greeting  but  rather  as  a  special  distinction  for  the  person 
thus  honoured  at  a  personal  and  private  interview.  The 
Emperor  was  also  extremely  sparing  with  his  compliments. 
He  never  made  them  without  the  most  careful  consideration, 
and  very  properly,  because  otherwise  they  would  not  have 
been  what  he  considered  they  should  always  be — a  quite 
special  distinction  for  the  individual  to  whom  they  were  paid. 

This  rigid  view  of  his  own  dignity  may  possibly  have 
contributed  to  the  opinion  which  was  held  fairly  widely 
that  deep  feeling  and  sympathy  for  others  was  foreign  to  the 
old  Emperor.  This  opinion  is  s  und,  however,  only  to  a 
very  limited  degree.  The  aged  sovereign  was  a  man  who  had 
been  sorely  tried  by  fate,  and  in  his  later  years  his  capacity  for 
emotional  impressions  seemed  numbed.  All  the  same  the 
Emperor  was  extremely  sensitive  to  the  appeal  of  human 
feeling  and  occasionally  he  revealed  real  softness  of  heart. 
About  Christmas,  1900,  the  German  training  ship  Charlotte 
went  down  in  the  harbour  of  Malaga  with  a  large  number  of 
naval  cadets  on  board.  Most  of  the  boys  came  to  a  tragic  end. 
When  I  asked  my  sovereign  to  approve  the  draft  of  his  tele- 
gram of  sympathy  to  the  German  Emperor  which  he  had 
instructed  me  was  to  be  couched  "  in  particularly  warm 
terms  "  he  shook  his  head.  "  That  would  be  right  and  proper 
enough  in  any  other  case,  but  my  sympathy  must  be  much 
more  intimate  and  heartfelt  on  this  occasion.  Of  how  many 
families  were  these  poor  victims  the  pride  and  joy  !  I  can  feel 
for  their  stricken  relatives  and  realize  their  sorrow  just  as 
much  as  if  it  were  my  own  !  " 

51  4* 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

Here  is  another  example.  When  the  Emperor  was  staying 
at  Ischl  in  the  summer  of  1901  the  news  of  the  Empress 
Frederick's  death  reached  us  at  the  end  of  July.  The  Emperor 
Francis  Joseph  quite  disapproved  of  my  draft  of  his  telegram 
of  sympathy  to  the  Emperor  William  II.  which  was  pretty 
long  and  expressive  of  the  deepest  grief,  in  accordance  with 
the  relations  between  the  two  monarchs. 

"  Oh  no  !  that  won't  do  at  all,"  he  said,  in  a  serious  tone. 
"  You  ought  to  know  that  the  Emperor  William's  mother  was 
not  particularly  fond  of  him.  He  was  not  exactly  on  good 
terms  with  her  and  in  fact  quarrelled  freely  with  her.  We 
must  bear  that  in  mind  now." 

Francis  Joseph  then  went  on  to  give  me  an  eloquent 
description  of  the  ideal  family  life  of  the  Emperor  William  on 
which  this  was  the  only  shadow.  He  was  obviously  moved  as 
he  concluded  with  some  such  words  as  these  :  "Is  there  any- 
thing dearer  on  earth  than  one's  mother  ?  Whatever 
differences  may  separate  us  the  mother  is  always  the  mother, 
and  when  we  lose  her  we  bury  a  good  part  of  ourselves  in  her 
grave." 

I  can  give  another  and  striking  example  of  the  Emperor's 
delicate  feeling  drawn  from  my  personal  experience.  At  the 
end  of  May,  19 14, 1  suffered  the  heaviest  loss  in  my  life  in  the 
death  of  my  father  to  whom  I  was  utterly  devoted,  and  my 
Royal  Master  took  the  first  opportunity  which  brought  me 
into  contact  with  him  to  express  his  personal  sympathy  with 
me  in  my  sorrow  in  words  of  tender  intimacy  such  as  only  a 
father  could  have  used  to  a  son  struck  down  by  some  bitter 
blow  of  fate.  This  spontaneous  expression  of  heartfelt 
sympathy  alone  will  be  enough  to  fill  me  with  unspeakable 
gratitude  to  my  kind  old  sovereign  for  the  rest  of  my  life. 

The  innate  human  kindness  of  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph, 
averse  to  all  spectacular  effects  though  it  was,  seemed  to  be 
based  on  genuine  piety  and  unwavering  faith  in  God.  The 
old   monarch  was  a  convinced   Catholic  who   unswervingly 

52 


The  Old  Emperor  Himself 

adhered  to  the  tenets  of  the  Roman  Church  and  conscien- 
tiously followed  its  precepts.  Yet  he  never  imposed  his 
religious  beliefs  on  other  people  and  there  was  no  taint  of 
intolerance  about  him  although  he  highly  prized  religious 
conviction  in  those  with  whom  he  came  in  contact,  at  any 
rate  in  that  pure  form  which  has  nothing  in  common  with 
fanaticism  or  bigotry. 

The  best  illustration  of  this  is  a  remark  which  the  Emperor 
let  fall  at  dinner  early  in  December,  1903.  We  had  had 
a  particularly  lively  autumn  at  court  as  the  King  of  England, 
the  German  Emperor,  the  Czar  of  Russia,  the  King  of  the 
Belgians  and  the  King  of  the  Hellenes  had  successively  paid  a 
visit  to  Vienna.  In  the  course  of  the  conversation  the 
Emperor  reverted  to  the  events  of  the  summer,  one  of  which 
was  the  death  of  the  great  Pope  Leo  XIII.  "  It's  a  serious 
loss,"  said  Francis  Joseph, "  to  me  and  still  more  to  the  Emperor 
WilHam  !  He  was  so  attached  to  the  Holy  Father  who  was 
always  a  true  friend  of  his.  His  death  touches  the  German 
Emperor  very  closely.  He  has  told  me  himself  repeatedly  of 
late."  (It  is  a  fact  that  William  II.  was  on  particularly  good 
terms  with  Pope  Leo  XIII.)  "  It  is  possible  that  the  Emperor 
William  is  more  in  sympathy  with  the  Catholic  Church  than 
the  Evangelical,"  continued  the  Emperor.  "  It  is  more 
congenial  to  his  nature  and  particularly  to  his  pious  nature." 

One  of  the  guests  here  interjected  with  a  doubting  smile  : 
"  That's  hard  to  believe,  as  the  Emperor  William  attaches  high 
importance  to  his  office  of  Lutheran  Summus  Episcopus  I " 
This  remark  was  not  at  all  to  the  taste  of  the  Emperor  for  his 
tone  was  sharp  and  rather  louder  than  usual  as  he  replied  : 

"  I  mean  what  I  say  !  No  one  can  doubt  William's  deep 
religious  conviction.  Religion  is  more  to  him  than  creed.  I 
value  that  in  the  German  Emperor  and  in  anyone  else  who  is 
inspired  with  the  same  conviction." 

Frequently  I  have  been  unable  to  resist  the  impression  that 
the  dignified  reserve  which  was  second  nature  with  the  Emperor 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

in  his  later  years  merely  covered  one  of  his  personal  weaknesses, 
of  which  he  had  several,  and  that  an  indefinable  feeling  of 
mistrust  towards  all  who  came  in  contact  with  him  also  played 
a  certain  part.  This  fact  seems  to  me  comprehensible  and 
indeed  almost  natural  in  a  man  who  could  look  back  on  count- 
less cruel  experiences  and  bitter  disappointments,  particularly 
in  the  case  of  persons  who  had  to  work  with  the  Emperor. 
His  proneness  to  suspicion  tended  increasingly  to  confirm 
Francis  Joseph  in  his  adherence  to  his  determination  (probably 
native  to  him  in  any  case)  to  keep  his  advisers  under  control 
and  in  no  circumstances  allow  them  to  exceed  the  limits  of 
the  special  sphere  appointed  to  them.  Those  limits  were  also 
observed  by  the  Emperor  himself  with  the  most  meticulous 
care  and  fine  feeling. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  no  one  ever  succeeded  in  imposing  his 
opinion  upon  the  sovereign  to  the  slightest  degree.  All  his 
ministers,  departmental  heads  and  other  servants  were  to  him 
wholly  and  solely  a  mere  portion  of  the  state  machine  for  as 
long  as  they  were  in  office,  and  only  existed  to  keep  it  in  motion 
as  best  they  could.  The  result  was  that  not  one  of  them — I 
speak  now  of  the  Emperor's  later  years — had  any  definite  or 
controlling  influence  over  him.  There  was  no  such  thing  as  a 
"  Camarilla,"  because  the  conditions  precedent  to  the 
existence  of  such  an  institution  were  lacking.  The  men  round 
the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  always  played  with  the  cards  on 
the  table. 

It  was  right  that  it  should  be  so  for  it  could  not  well  be 
otherwise  in  an  extremely  complicated  institution  like  the 
Danube  Monarchy. 

I  once  spoke  to  the  well-known  Professor  of  International 
Law,  Doctor  Lammasch,  about  this  peculiarity  and  he  made 
a  most  original  remark  :  "  In  my  opinion  the  Emperor  Francis 
Joseph  would  yield  only  to  the  influence  of  someone  belong- 
ing to  the  highest  aristocracy,  possessing  the  most  brilliant 
gifts  and  the  widest  knowledge,  someone  who  is  enormously 

54 


The  Old  Emperor  Himself 

wealthy  and  never  wants  anything  from  him.  Thank  God 
there's  no  such  person." 

In  these  few  words  we  have  an  accurate  summary  of  the 
old  Emperor  Francis  Joseph's  character. 

It  is  only  with  Doctor  Lammasch's  last  words  that  I  must 
quarrel,  after  careful  consideration,  for  I  profoundly  regret 
that  there  was  no  such  person  with  sufficient  authority  with 
the  Emperor  to  show  him  how  to  keep  pace  with  the  pro- 
gressive demands  of  the  times  in  the  interests  of  the  State. 
Unfortunately  the  Emperor  never  succeeded  in  looking  ahead 
and  adapting  himself  to  the  great  changes  which  have  taken 
place  in  the  course  of  the  last  decade,  or  to  the  recent  but 
all  the  mightier  advances  of  modern  times  which  are  due 
to  the  revolution  of  thought. 

Consequently  no  heed  was  paid  to  that  summons  to  a 
timely  reconstruction  of  the  Hapsburg  Empire  which  would 
have  secured  its  boundaries,  its  future  and  its  development, 
a  summons  which  during  the  last  twenty-five  years  had 
been  knocking  louder  and  louder  at  the  doors  of  the  statesmen 
of  the  Danube  Monarchy. 

On  this  matter  the  decisive  consideration  with  the 
Emperor,  as  with  so  many  others,  was  that  such  a  reform  of 
the  great  state  complex  known  to  us  as  Austria-Hungary 
was  probably  inherently  impossible,  at  any  rate  by  peaceful 
means. 

And  are  we  quite  sure  that  we  can  dismiss  the  reflection 
that  the  Danube  Monarchy  only  held  together  so  long  as  its 
ancient  form  and  structure  were  preserved  and  suffered  no 
far-reaching  changes  ? 


55 


CHAPTER  III 
MEMORIES  OF  THE  EMPRESS  ELIZABETH 

IT  was  the  morning  of  that  spring  Sunday  in  1888,  a  day- 
favoured  by  the  most  glorious  weather,  on  which  the 
unveihng  of  the  monument  of  the  Empress  Maria  Theresa 
between  the  two  National  Museums  at  Vienna  took  place. 
As  a  pupil  of  the  Technical  Military  College,  which  had  turned 
out  for  the  occasion,  I  was  in  my  place  in  the  ranks  on  the 
Ring  Strasse  in  front  of  the  outer  Burgtor.  The  ceremony 
ended  with  a  march  past  the  Imperial  couple.  It  was  the 
first  and  last  time  that  I  was  to  catch  sight  of  the  Empress. 
She  was  tall,  like  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  who  was  of 
more  than  average  height,  slim  and  distinguished,  and  she 
was  standing  near  her  husband.  I  can  remember  one  detail 
extremely  well.  From  her  hat  hung  a  long  veil  which  was 
fluttering  in  the  wind.  It  may  have  bothered  the  Empress, 
because  just  as  we  were  marching  past  she  threw  back  the 
veil  with  an  impatient,  nervous  movement  of  the  arm  and 
in  so  doing  leaned  back  a  little.  I  thus  lost  my  chance 
of  getting  a  clear  view  of  her  face,  a  fact  which  I  greatly 
regret  to  the  present  day. 

Hitherto  I  had  not  heard  much  of  this  uncommon  woman, 
least  of  all  in  Vienna.  It  seemed  to  me  that  a  much  greater 
and  deeper  interest  was  taken  in  her  in  Trieste,  my  native 
city,  than  in  the  capital.  Apparently  she  was  not  popular 
there  in  the  usual  sense  of  the  word.  At  any  rate  she  was 
not  one  of  those  sovereign's  wives  who  get  themselves  talked 
about. 

56 


Memories  of  the  Empress  Elizabeth 

To-day  I  think  I  can  safely  say  that  it  was  really  only  after 
her  death  that  people  began  to  think  about  her.  The  tragic 
aspect  of  that  event  at  once  threw  the  limelight  on  the 
lonely  woman  whose  existence  had  hitherto  apparently  been 
wrapped  in  mysterious  darkness. 

There  was  a  good  deal  of  post-mortem  reading,  talk  and 
inquiry  about  her,  but  even  that  did  not  last  long  and  folk 
went  on  their  way  indifferent  as  before. 

If  any  thought  was  given  to  her  now  and  then,  it  usually 
took  the  form  of  memories  of  her  extraordinary  beauty,  with 
which  the  public  had  been  familiarized  by  photographs  and 
pictures.  The  external  element  was  always  immediately 
coupled  with  those  characteristics  of  the  Empress  which  were 
summed  up  in  the  word  "  eccentricity."  This  was  occasionally 
associated  with  an  expression  of  sorrow  for  her  imperial  hus- 
band, whose  married  life  had  thus  been  not  entirely  un- 
clouded. 

Conversation  on  the  subject  of  the  Empress  Elizabeth 
moved  more  or  less  within  these  limits.  It  went  no  deeper, 
and  seldom  further. 

When  I  started  on  my  duties  in  the  Aides-de-Camp's 
department  at  Christmas,  1900,  and  thus  entered  that  exclusive 
world  in  which  the  Empress  Elizabeth  lived,  hardly  anyone 
at  court  ever  talked  about  her  ;  least  of  all  the  Emperor, 
from  whose  lips  I  never  heard  a  word  about  his  dead  wife. 

This  struck  me  as  very  strange.  Only  two  years  had 
passed  since  the  Empress's  tragic  death  !  It  might,  therefore, 
have  been  expected  that  many  traces  of  her  would  still  be 
left  even  though  her  special  court  no  longer  existed.  But 
even  the  other  officials  with  whom  I  occasionally  came  in 
contact  appeared  either  to  know  nothing  about  her  or  to 
be  reluctant  to  talk  about  her  any  more. 

It  was  with  a  deep  feeling  of  regret  that  I  noticed  that 
none  of  them  thought  of  the  times  in  which  a  woman's 
gentle  hand  had  brought  beauty  and  light  into  the  daily  life 

57 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

of  the  court.  Still  more  painful  was  it  involuntarily  to  hear 
occasional  remarks  to  the  opposite  effect,  for  example,  the 
irritable  outburst  of  an  official  whose  duties  were  to  accompany 
the  sovereigns  on  their  journeys  :  "  Oh  !  that  was  when  the 
Empress  was  alive,  when  things  were  upside  down,  like  every- 
thing else  about  her  1  " 

But  I  did  not  hear  many  more  remarks  of  that  kind  which 
always  recalled  the  same  memories  of  her.  In  the  long 
run  I  had  to  admit  myself  that  the  Empress  Elizabeth  had 
succumbed  to  that  tragic  fate  which  means  a  pitiless  con- 
demnation to  oblivion  after  death  of  those  who  are  already 
"  dead  in  life,"  for  even  the  casual  circumstance  that  during 
the  first  year  of  my  duties  at  court  I  was  present  at  the  un- 
veiling of  two  monuments  of  Empress  Elizabeth — at  Godoll5 
in  May,  1901,  and  at  Salzburg,  two  months  later — brought 
me  no  material  to  complete  the  pale,  vague  picture  which  I 
had  formed  of  the  deceased. 

It  was  the  same  with  the  annual  function  on  the  loth  of 
September,  on  which  day  solemn  mass  for  the  departed 
was  celebrated.  As  hardly  anyone  gave  the  Empress  a  thought 
the  service  in  the  chapel  of  the  Hofburg  seemed  to  me 
nothing  but  a  customary  formality,  just  like  the  special  ser- 
vices on  Easter  Sunday  and  Christmas  Day.  The  Emperor 
alone  commemorated  the  anniversary  of  his  wife's  death  by 
descending  into  the  vaults  and  breathing  a  long  and  silent 
prayer  over  Elizabeth's  coffin.  To  him  the  memory  of  his 
dear  wife  still  had  healing  force,  though  probably  to  no  one 
but  himself  and  his  daughters. 

All  this  made  my  sympathies  go  out  to  this  woman,  and 
quite  unconsciously  I  grew  to  know  her  more  and  more. 
When  my  duties  took  me  into  the  great  Strangers'  Chamber 
of  the  Hofburg,  I  always  stopped  to  gaze  at  Winterhalder's 
splendid  life-size  portrait  of  the  imperial  couple.  My  eyes 
could  not  tear  themselves  from  the  Empress  Elizabeth's  face  ; 
they  seemed  bewitched  by  her  truly  ideal  beauty. 

^8 


Memories  of  the  Empress  Elizabeth 

How  came  it  that  no  one  at  Court  had  a  kind  word  for  her, 
or  even  gave  her  a  moment's  loving  thought  ? 

It  was  only  quite  gradually  that  I  discovered  an  explana- 
tion which  I  seemed  to  suspect  rather  than  find  facts  to 
substantiate. 

The  Empress  Elizabeth  was  a  Wittelsbach,  and  thus  shared 
the  special  characteristics  of  all  members  of  that  ancient 
House.  It  meant  that  she  not  only  took  no  pleasure  in  court 
life  and  splendour,  its  merely  formal  superficialities  and 
exhausting,  idle  demands,  but  was  an  avowed  enemy  of 
everything  which  smacked  of  the  court.  Her  whole  being  was 
but  an  expression  of  her  inward  life,  and  this  probably  gave 
her  a  most  intimate  feeling  for  the  deep  things  of  life  and  thus 
made  her  much  more  sensitive  to  joy,  and  still  more  to  sorrows. 

Of  the  latter  not  a  few  were  reserved  for  Elizabeth.  They 
may  have  played  a  decisive  part  in  the  development  of  the 
Empress's  character,  particularly  after  the  Crown  Prince's 
death,  all  the  more  so  as  she  never  knew  how  to  look  as  if  she 
could  triumph  over  her  sorrow,  or  at  any  rate  conceal  it  for 
the  time  being  by  busying  herself  in  receptions,  participation 
in  celebration,  courts  and  all  the  other  functions  which 
form  the  usual  activities  of  a  sovereign's  wife.  She  could  not 
adapt  herself  to  circumstances.  She  simply  evaded  such 
"  duties  "  and  refused  to  recognize  them  as  such. 

For  all  these  reasons  she  remained  unknown  to  the  crowd, 
and  the  crowd  took  offence.  Public  disapproval  found 
expression  in  the  belief,  which  is  still  current,  that  the 
Empress  Elizabeth  was  mentally  abnormal.  People  may  try 
in  this  simple  way  to  explain  this  extraordinary  woman's 
conduct,  which  was  certainly  incomprehensible  to  very  many. 
It  is  a  comfortable  method  of  avoiding  a  confession  that 
no  one  knew  her  or,  indeed,  knew  anything  about  her  ! 

A  few  isolated  individuals  alone  had  enjoyed  the  special 
privilege — it  must  certainly  have  been  a  privilege — of  being 
in  close  touch  with  the  Empress.     To  get  them  to  talk  freely 

59 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

about  the  Empress  I  had  to  find  suitable  occasions,  and  for 
me  these  were  few  and  at  first  far  between.  As  early  as  1901, 
however,  an  opportunity  presented  itself.  An  Englishwoman, 
Mrs.  De  La  Touffe-Lauder,  living  at  Toronto,  wished  to 
publish  a  biography  of  the  Empress,  taking  advantage  of  the 
fact  that  she  had  once  been  in  personal  contact  with  Elizabeth 
for  several  weeks  in  Ireland.  She  therefore  applied  to 
Count  Paar  whom  she  asked  to  give  her  reliable  details  about 
the  life  of  the  Empress.  Count  Paar  did  not  wish  to  comply 
with  what  he  thought  was  an  unreasonable  request.  He 
assigned  to  me  the  task  of  further  correspondence  with  the 
lady  and  instructed  me  to  get  into  touch  with  the  former 
Controller  of  the  Empress's  household,  the  aged  Baron 
Nopcsa. 

The  Baron  proved  himself  a  vivacious  and  original  gentle- 
man. Subsequently  I  heard  that  all  sorts  of  stories  were  told 
about  him  and  that  the  origin  of  his  family  was  said  to  have 
been  extremely  odd. 

Unfortunately  I  could  not  get  much  out  of  Nopcsa.  All 
he  did  was  to  keep  on  regretting  that  there  had  been  so  many 
changes  at  Court,  and  those  not  for  the  best  since  Elizabeth's 
death.  According  to  him  the  Empress  had  been  the  soul 
of  the  Imperial  household,  not  merely  on  account  of  her 
unusual  intelligence  but  more  because  of  her  kind  heart. 
Baron  Nopcsa  ascribed  her  outstanding  personality  to  the 
facts  that  she  spoke  a  dozen  languages,  was  a  splendid  musician, 
took  a  great  interest  in  literature  and  poetry  and  possessed 
a  feeling  for  art  in  all  its  branches  such  as  is  hardly  likely 
to  be  found  in  any  other  woman.  For  her  reading  she  pre- 
ferred serious  scientific  works.  What  particularly  impressed 
the  old  courtier  was  the  complete  accuracy  of  her  intuitions 
about  the  national  soul  of  Hungary.  The  Hungarians  were 
wildly  enthusiastic  about  her,  a  fact  which  materially 
strengthened  the  position  of  the  Emperor  in  the  lands  of  St. 
Stephen's  Crown.     The  Hungarians  (Nopcsa  was  himself  a 

60 


Memories  of  the  Empress  Elizabeth 

Hungarian)  were  grateful  to  Elizabeth  for  this  devotion  to 
their  country  and  have  preserved  loyal  and  admiring  memories 
of  her. 

An  "  Elizabeth  Memorial  Museum  "  was  established  with 
nothing  less  than  pious  affection  in  the  Royal  Castle  at 
Budapest,  in  which  were  collected  a  number  of  objects  asso- 
ciated with  the  Empress.  They  included  even  the  clothing, 
the  bodice  slashed  by  the  assassin's  weapon  and  soaked  in 
the  Empress's  blood,  which  she  had  worn  on  the  day  of  her 
death.  The  old  Emperor  satisfied  himself  with  a  single 
official  visit  to  this  Museum  when  it  was  opened,  but  he  often 
went  there  when  in  the  course  of  his  busy  day  he- wanted  to 
return  for  half  an  hour  to  those  times  in  which  his  wife  had 
been  still  at  his  side.  On  these  occasions  he  always  wished 
to  be  alone.  No  one  might  disturb  him  in  his  melancholy 
reflections. 

I  gave  Mrs.  Lauder  a  general  report  of  what  Baron  Nopcsa 
had  told  me  about  the  Empress  Elizabeth.  Mrs.  Lauder 
replied  to  me  in  several  letters  in  which  she  showed  that  she 
was  better  informed  on  the  subjects  of  the  Empress's  private 
feelings  than  Nopcsa  himself. 

In  particular  Mrs.  Lauder  threw  an  impressive  light  on 
Elizabeth's  religion.  The  Empress  is  said  to  have  been  a  good 
Catholic,  but  all  kinds  of  bigotry,  and  still  more  fanaticism, 
were  quite  repugnant  to  her.  In  the  choice  of  her  associates, 
creed  formed  absolutely  no  obstacle.  She  had  great  friend- 
ships with  Greeks  such  as  Rossopoulus  and  Christomanos, 
Protestants  like  Middleton  and  Baker,  and  Jews  like  Baroness 
Alfons  Rothschild.  Elizabeth's  Christianity  was  not  confined 
within  the  frontiers  of  the  Church  of  Rome  but  was  uni- 
versal, and  therefore  truly  "  Catholic."  When  she  visited 
Great  Britain  she  took  a  lively  interest  in  all  the  creeds  she 
found  there,  however  heterodox  they  were.  Mrs.  Lauder 
insisted  that  the  Empress  had  most  in  common  with  the 
spirit  which   animated   the  ritualistic   Church  of  England. 

6i 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

That  would  easily  explain  the  fact  that  Elizabeth's  book  of 
devotion  at  that  time  was  the  Rev.  John  Keble's  "  Christian 
Year,"  which  she  read  most  diligently  every  day.  On  this 
subject  Mrs.  Lauder  wrote  to  me  on  July  27,  1901,  in  reply 
to  a  letter  announcing  the  unveiling  of  the  Elizabeth  monu- 
ment at  GodoUo  : 

"  The  ceremony  will  be  over  when  you  get  these  lines. 
How  I  should  have  liked  to  have  been  there  !  We  English 
had  a  great  affection  for  the  Empress.  She  thought  as  we 
do  and  so  she  loved  our  country,  language,  customs  and 
above  all  our  Church.  In  her  view  the  Church  of  Rome 
appealed  too  much  to  the  senses  and  too  little  to  the  spirit. 
She  did  not  like  Calvinism  with  which  she  had  come  in  con- 
tact in  Hungary  ;  she  felt  its  coldness  numb  her  heart.  In 
our  creed,  on  the  other  hand,  she  found  much,  if  not  all 
that  the  others  lacked.  When  I  told  her  that  this  idea  was 
reproduced  in  an  old  English  poem  she  made  me  recite  it 
to  her,  wrote  it  down  at  once  and  by  the  next  day  she  knew 
it  by  heart  and  subsequently  repeated  it  frequently.  She 
liked  it  so  much.  The  verses  may  interest  you  too.  George 
Herbert  wrote  them  nearly  three  hundred  years  ago  : 

"  She  on  the  hills,  which  wantonly 
Allureth  all  in  hope  to  be 

By  her  preferred, 
Hath  kissed  so  long  her  painted  shrines, 
That  e'en  her  face  by  kissing  shines 

For  her  reward. 

"  She  in  the  valley  is  so  shy 
Of  dressing,  that  her  hair  doth  lie 

About  her  ears  : 
While  she  avoids  her  neighbour's  pride 
She  wholly  goes  on  th'  other  side 

And  nothing  wears. 

"  But,  dearest  mother,  what  those  miss, 
The  mean  thy  praise  and  glory  is, 
And  long  may  be. 

62 


Memories  of  the  Empress  Elizabeth 

"  Of  course  you  realize  that  the  first  verse  refers  to  the 
Roman,  the  second  to  the  Presbyterian  and  the  last  to  the 
Anglican  Church.  That's  exactly  how  the  Empress  Elizabeth 
read  them,  so  that  this  thoughtful  poem  is  doubly  dear  to 
me  because  it  is  also  an  *  In  Memoriam  '  of  her." 

I  do  not  know  whether  Mrs.  De  La  Touffe-Lauder  ever 
carried  out  her  intention  and  published  the  biography.  I 
heard  nothing  further  of  her  after  1903.  Whereas  this  lady 
based  her  opinion  on  the  spiritual  qualities  of  the  Empress, 
what  Count  Paar  remembered  most,  when  the  conversation 
came  round  to  the  subject  of  Elizabeth  (which  was  very 
seldom),  was  her  physical  attraction,  elegance  and  charm.  On 
November  19,  1904,  the  Empress's  birthday,  the  Emperor 
was  in  Godollo,  and  in  the  evening  Count  Paar  began  to 
recall  memories  of  Elizabeth.  He  could  not  praise  her  beauty 
too  highly  and  insisted  that  he  thought  it  quite  natural 
that  the  Emperor  chose  Elizabeth  the  first  time  he  saw 
her,  and  would  have  no  more  of  her  elder  sister  (subsequently 
Princess  Thurn-Taxis),  who  had  originally  been  intended  for 
him.  Count  Paar  told  us  with  deep  regret  that  Elisabeth, 
as  Empress  of  Austria,  had  had  to  pay  a  very  high  price 
for  this  stroke  of  good  fortune  which  everyone  had  envied 
her.  He  went  on  to  say  that  immediately  after  the  wedding 
Elizabeth  had  begun  to  feel  the  oppressive  influence  of  her 
mother-in-law,  the  all-powerful  Archduchess  Sophie. 

Count  Paar  had  been  appointed  aide-de-camp  to  the 
Emperor  in  the  sixties.  His  allusion  to  the  fact  was  as  follows : 
"  In  my  time  Sophie  was  certainly  a  good  old  meddler,  but 
Belgian  Charlotte  had  gone.  She'd  already  made  Mexico  her 
headquarters.  But  they  must  have  given  the  poor  young 
Empress  hell  earlier  on  !  We  were  thoroughly  sorry  for  her  !  " 

Paar  then  went  on  to  talk  about  the  Emperor  who  had 
really  loved  his  wife  but  could  do  nothing  against  his  mother, 
who  seemed  to  have  made  it  her  business  systematically  to 
force   the   Emperor  and  Empress   apart.     Her   motive   was 

63 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

ambition  and  also  an  exaggerated,  if  well-meant,  notion  of 
the  Emperor's  dignity.  In  that  direction  the  Archduchess 
Sophie  could  not  go  far  enough.  She  was  constantly  reproach- 
ing the  Emperor  with  having  made  a  miserable  match  and 
telling  him  that  he  ought  to  have  brought  home  a  King's 
daughter,  if  not  a  queen.  In  the  long  run  she  was  so  success- 
ful that  in  the  sixties  the  Emperor  and  Empress  were  virtually 
living  apart  and  hardly  ever  saw  each  other  for  nearly  seven 
years.  When  the  Emperor,  enormously  impressed  by  politi- 
cal events,  came  back  after  Solferino  and  sought  encourage- 
ment from  his  mother,  old  Sophie  could  think  of  nothing  better 
than  to  recommend  him  to  amuse  himself  where  and  how 
he  liked  outside.  The  young  Empress,  however,  would  have 
none  of  it.  She  left  for  Trieste  one  foggy  night  and  from 
there  travelled  to  Africa  and  the  East.  The  two  small 
children,  Gisela  and  Rudolph,  were  left  without  a  mother. 
That  was  good  business  for  the  Archduchess  Sophie.  She 
now  had  the  Emperor's  children  also  in  her  power.  Her 
victory  was  complete.  No  one  in  Vienna  gave  another 
thought  to  the  far-away  Empress.  The  Archduchess  Sophie 
left  no  stone  unturned  to  make  people  forget  her  altogether. 
She  would  not  have  come  back  at  all  if  it  had  not  been  for 
the  coronation  in  Hungary. 

"  The  coronation  ?  "  I  asked  Count  Paar  in  astonishment. 
"  What  had  that  to  do  with  it  ?  " 

"  Wait  a  minute,"  said  Paar.  "  When  the  Emperor  was 
to  be  crowned  in  Budapest,  his  wife  couldn't  exactly  be  over- 
looked or  left  out  of  account.  There'd  have  been  a  European 
scandal  of  the  first  order  !  To  avoid  that  the  Empress  had  to 
be  brought  back  at  any  cost.  She  came.  The  Emperor  then 
became  another  man,  and  it  was  then  that  he  acquired  that 
serious  habit  of  mind  which  he  has  never  since  lost.  Soon 
afterwards  the  birth  of  the  Archduchess  Valerie  brought  a 
gleam  of  light  into  the  hitherto  darkened  sky  of  the  imperial 
couple's  married  life." 

64 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  wiih  the  Archduke  Francis  Joseph  Olto,  son  of 
the  Archduke  Charles.     {Photo  taken  September  i$,  1914.) 


[Facing  p.  64 


Memories  of  the  Empress  Elizabeth 

Subsequently  I  came  across  others  who  knew  something 
about  the  Empress.  In  Budapest  there  was  the  celebrated 
painter  Benczur  who  described  the  Empress  as  a  splendid 
art  critic  and  a  first-class  painter  in  water  colours.  Then 
there  was  the  well-known  sculptor  Strobl  who  considered 
Elizabeth  a  clever  modeller  and  a  critic  of  real  powers.  In 
Vienna  Adolf  Sonnenthal  could  not  say  enough  of  the 
Empress's  feeling  for  literature  and  the  drama  and,  quoting 
Alexander  Strakosch  in  confirmation,  he  used  to  praise  her  as 
a  whole-hearted  and  yet  discriminating  patroness  of  the 
Court  Theatre. 

The  judgment  passed  on  Elizabeth  by  the  sculptor, 
Kaspar  Ritter  Von  Zumbusch,  was  not  so  favourable.  For 
some  years  Budapest  had  been  busy  with  a  scheme  for  a 
great  statue  of  the  dead  Empress.  There  were,  however, 
such  hopeless  differences  of  opinion  about  the  design  that 
no  concrete  decision  had  been  reached,  particularly  as  the 
Hungarian  aristocracy,  and  more  especially  the  ladies,  in- 
dulged in  the  most  fantastic  notions  in  which  personal 
wishes  and  vanities  naturally  played  the  lead. 

In  the  spring  of  1910  several  ladies  of  the  high  Hungarian 
nobility  addressed  themselves  directly  to  the  Emperor  with 
a  view  to  getting  his  approval  of  the  design  they  patronized 
— a  model  representing  the  Empress  on  horseback  in  full 
coronation  robes — and  thus  putting  an  end  to  the  debate. 
The  old  Emperor  disliked  both  the  appeal  for  his  decision 
and  the  design  itself,  because  the  pose  struck  him  as  quite 
out  of  keeping  with  Elizabeth's  very  special  personality. 
He  therefore  instructed  me  to  ascertain  the  views  of  Zum- 
busch— whom  he  considered  the  highest  authority  in  matters 
of  art.  Zumbusch  told  me  that  the  design  in  question 
was  ridiculous ;  that  a  monument  of  that  kind  would  cer- 
tainly have  been  appropriate  for  Maria  Theresa,  who  really 
had  been  a  ruler,  but  not  for  Elizabeth  who  was  anything 
but  that,  and  not  even  a   mother  of   her   country,  as   she 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

had  taken  very  little  interest  in  the  great  mass  of  her 
subjects. 

"  Everything  they  say  about  her  is  invented,"  he  said  ; 
"  she  took  no  interest  in  anyone  but  herself.  I  really  cannot 
understand  why  they're  putting  up  a  monument  to  her 
at  all.  In  any  case,  she  ought  to  be  represented  as  what 
she  really  was,  nothing  but  a  lonely  dreamer.  I  believe 
Bitterlich*  has  already  done  it  pretty  well.  Anything  else 
is  only  a  distortion  of  the  facts  !  " 

When  I  told  this,  not  without  a  certain  trepidation,  to 
Count  Paar  who  was  to  report  accordingly  to  the  Emperor, 
he  remarked  that  Zumbusch  had  taken  the  words  out  of  the 
sovereign's  own  mouth  as  of  all  the  monuments  to  the 
Empress  Elizabeth  he  regarded  only  one  as  a  faithful  repre- 
sentation— Chiattone's  at  Territet. 

It  represents  the  Empress  in  an  elaborate  lace  gown, 
seated  with  her  head  in  her  hand. 

I  had  only  seen  a  photograph  of  it  and  with  its  grave  com- 
posure, if  not  downright  melancholy,  it  seemed  to  me  almost 
more  appropriate  for  a  tomb.  It  was  as  if  Chiattone's  whole 
object  had  been  to  represent  the  Empress  weeping  over  her 
tragic  life. 

I  said  as  much  to  Count  Paar  who  burst  out  excitedly  : 
"  You're  absolutely  right !  What  else  was  the  Empress's 
life  in  her  last  years  ?  It  was  exactly  what  she  felt  like  when 
she  left  this  earth.  The  Emperor  has  often  told  me  that 
nothing  but  the  trained  imagination  of  an  Italian  like 
Chiattone  could  have  unfailingly  grasped  the  Empress's 
state  of  mind  and  interpreted  it  in  marble." 

In  the  summer  of  1906  the  number  of  my  informants  was 
increased  by  the  Empress  Eugenie,  who  was  visiting  the 
Emperor  Francis  Joseph  at  Ischl.  I  was  placed  at  her 
disposal  for  the  duration    of   her  stay  which  lasted  several 

♦  The  sculptor  of   the  statue  of  the  Empress  Elizabeth  in  the   Volksgarten  at 
Vienna  which  was  unveiled  in  June,   1907. 

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Memories  of  the  Empress  Elizabeth 

days.  With  her  incomparable  vivacity  she  used  the  oppor- 
tunity it  afforded  to  drav^  me  into  conversation  and  show 
me  that  from  early  times  she  had  gained  an  insight  into  the 
state  of  affairs  at  Court.  The  evening  before  she  left  she 
summed  up  her  new  impression  in  words  of  enthusiastic 
praise  for  the  Emperor  and  ended  up  with  an  expression  of 
regret  that  the  Empress  Elizabeth  was  not  there  and  that 
the  Ischl  household  in  particular  felt  her  absence  every- 
where. To  my  remark  that  I  had  not  known  the  Empress, 
Eugenie  replied  in  a  tone  of  soliloquy  :  "  She  was  a  quite 
exceptional  woman !  A  dazzling  beauty,  extraordinarily 
charming  ;  an  exquisitely  delicate  spirit.  And  what  a  fine 
mind !  Far  too  beautiful  and  wise  for  this  world  which  didn't 
deserve  her  !  " 

The  Empress  Eugenie  continued  in  her  enthusiastic 
praise  of  the  Empress  Elizabeth,  and  wound  up  with  the 
opinion  that  she  was  too  cultured  and  foreign  in  her  ways 
for  the  Germans,  and  was  more  fitted  for  another  society, 
perhaps  French.  A  striking  illustration  was  her  love  of 
Heine,  whose  German  origin  did  not  prevent  him  from  find- 
ing his  real  home  in  France.  In  Eugenie's  view  the  German 
nature  was  too  serious,  positive  and  methodical  for  that 
intellectual  German  Jew. 

"  It  was  the  same  with  the  Empress  Elizabeth.  She  had 
to  be  known  and  the  Germans,  by  which  I  mean  the  Austrians, 
did  not  know  her  with  the  result  that  Elizabeth's  occasionally 
extravagant  actions  were  very  strictly  interpreted,  if  not 
misunderstood.  The  Empress  felt  it  keenly.  She  began  to 
expose  herself  to  public  criticism  as  little  as  possible  and 
ended  by  retiring  from  public  life  altogether.  Alas,  she  lost 
all  her  chances  of  resuming  her  place  on  the  throne  at  her 
royal  husband's  side  and  went  forth  to  die  in  exile  ;  a  voluntary 
exile  but  not  less  unhappy.  Poor  woman  !  Still  she's  the 
only  sovereign's  wife  I've  ever  envied,  even  after  losing  her 
only  son.     I  could  feel  with  her  in  her  grief,  for  I  suffered 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

the  same  cruel  loss.  But  Elizabeth  still  had  her  husband 
and  her  two  daughters.  She  was  still  the  Empress,  a  mother 
of  her  peoples.  When  they  brought  me  the  sad  news  of  my 
son's  death  I  was  a  widow,  a  lonely  exile  banished  from  the 
land  in  which  I  had  once  worn  the  imperial  crown." 

A  valuable  confirmation  of  this  highly  individual  but 
none  the  less  profound  judgment  was  furnished  to  me  next 
year  from  another  source  and  in  a  different  way.  It  was 
again  at  Ischl  to  which  General  Middleton,  an  Englishman, 
came  on  a  visit  in  the  summer  of  1907.  He  called  on  me 
to  ask  me  to  obtain  an  audience  for  him  with  the  Emperor. 
He  was  an  old  but  very  robust  gentleman,  with  clever  black 
eyes  which  blinked  a  good  deal,  and  thick  white  hair  and 
moustache.  In  his  day  he  must  have  been  a  fine  figure 
of  a  man,  but  he  already  had  a  pronounced  stoop.  De- 
lighted at  having  found  someone  who  could  speak  English, 
he  told  me  at  once  that  he  was  well  known  to  the  Emperor, 
as  he  had  hunted  with  the  Empress  in  Ireland  at  the  end  of 
the  seventies  and  subsequently  visited  her  at  Cap  Martin. 

When  I  objected  that  the  Emperor  did  not  in  principle 
grant  audiences  at  Ischl  General  Middleton  remarked  with 
a  knowing  look  in  his  sharp  eyes  that  an  exception  could 
surely  be  made  in  his  favour.  He  begged  me  to  report  his 
request  to  the  Emperor  at  any  rate. 

When  I  told  Count  Paar  of  General  Middleton's  arrival 
and  his  desire  for  an  audience  I  realized  that  the  unexpected 
appearance  of  this  gentleman  was  not  very  welcome  to  the 
general.  Count  Paar  looked  annoyed  and  growled :  "  If 
that  isn't  just  the  limit !  "  Next  day  he  brought  me  a 
command  from  the  Emperor  that  under  no  circumstances 
must  Middleton  be  invited  to  the  imperial  table.  The 
Emperor  would  give  further  consideration  to  the  question 
of  an  audience  and  I  was  to  look  after  Middleton  a  bit  as 
long  as  his  stay  at  Ischl  lasted.  So  for  the  next  few  days, 
when  my  day's  work  was  over  I  used  to  call  for  Middleton  at 

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Memories  of  the  Empress  Elizabeth 

his  hotel  and  we  went  for  short  walks  together,  generally  by 
the  Soolenwege  through  the  Lauffen  Wald,  and  usually 
ended  with  a  smoke  and  talk  on  a  seat  somewhere. 

At  the  start  Middleton's  conversation  did  not  interest 
me  particularly.  The  only  subject  of  conversation  he  liked 
was  hunting  and  horse-breeding,  or  else  he  poured  out 
reminiscences  about  times  of  which  I  knew  nothing. 

But  when  we  knew  each  better  I  gradually  realized  that 
Middleton,  an  unusually  keen  observer,  was  particularly 
well-informed  about  the  imperial  family  because  the  Empress 
Elizabeth  must  have  given  him  her  confidence  and  told  him 
a  good  deal. 

It  was  not  very  difficult  for  me  to  bring  the  conversation 
round  to  that  topic  pretty  often. 

Middleton  was  a  thorough-going  admirer  of  the  Empress 
Elizabeth.  That  his  admiration  was  genuine  was  proved 
by  the  tears  which  sometimes  stood  in  his  eyes  when  he 
spoke  of  her. 

He  was  never  tired  of  saying  that  he  had  never  seen  a 
better  or  bolder  horsewoman  than  the  Empress.  Her  feats 
in  the  field  of  sport  he  considered  quite  unrivalled.  He 
explained  her  unique  horsemanship  as  due,  not  only  to 
her  real  fondness  for  that  form  of  sport,  but  also  to  the 
excellent  muscular  system  she  possessed,  notwithstanding 
that  apparently  she  was  of  quite  slight  build.  But  the  chief 
reason  in  Middleton's  view  was  a  magnetic,  or  rather  hyp- 
notic power  which  dwelt  within  the  Empress,  a  power 
which  enabled  her  to  impose  her  will  upon  even  the  most 
refractory  animal  the  moment  she  mounted,  and  by  her 
irresistible  force  change  it  into  the  most  submissive  of 
creatures. 

"  And  mark  my  words,"  said  Middleton  emphatically, 
"  this  secret  power  over  animals  is  peculiar  to  few  human 
beings,  and  those  possessing  it  are  not  generally  normal. 
The  Empress  Elizabeth  had  a  flair  too,  and  that  was  useful 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

to  her  in  riding  !  Just  as  useful  as  in  learning  languages,  of 
which  she  knew  so  many  !  " 

The  old  Englishman,  who  could  only  express  himself  in 
his  "  broadest  English,"  was  particularly  impressed  by  this 
last  accomplishment.  When  he  spoke  of  the  Empress  his 
usually  dry  and  anything  but  fluent  conversation  at  once 
became  animated  and  phrases  almost  poetical  crept  in,  as 
when  he  praised  her  tenderheartedness  or  recalled  how 
generously  she  remembered  all  those  needing  help,  and  the 
welfare  institutions  with  which  she  came  in  contact  during 
her  stay  in  the  South  of  France. 

I  myself  knew  something  on  that  subject.  For  instance, 
as  long  as  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  lived,  the  "  Ecoles 
Chretiennes,"  in  Cabbe  Roquebrune,  Cap  Martin,  which  were 
managed  by  Cure  L.  Albin,  received  five  hundred  francs 
from  the  private  purse  on  each  New  Year's  Day.  The 
practice  was  a  continuation  of  the  annual  donation  made  to 
those  schools  by  the  Empress  in  such  complete  secrecy  that 
hardly  anyone  knew  about  it. 

"  And  what  a  beauty  she  was  I  "  continued  Middleton 
enthusiastically.  "  A  real  fairy !  But  she  never  had  any 
luck.  Domestic  dissensions,  differences  with  her  husband 
and  mother-in-law,  and  then  the  death  of  her  dearly-loved 
only  son.  She  never  recovered  from  that  blow.  It  utterly 
prostrated  her  !  It  was  then  that  her  incessant  wanderings 
began  and  millions  and  millions  vanished  in  building  the 
Achilleion  at  Corfu.  What  a  pity  she  didn't  come  to  us 
in  England  !     We'd  soon  have  got  her  back  to  life  !  " 

It  was  with  bated  breath  that  I  followed  the  words  of  the 
old  man  who  could  rise  to  such  heights  of  enthusiasm  at 
the  mere  memory  of  the  Empress  Elizabeth,  even  after  the 
lapse  of  so  many  years. 

As  several  days  passed  and  the  Emperor  still  issued  no 
instructions  as  to  Middleton's  audience,  the  latter  asked  me 
to  make  further  inquiry,  so  that  he  could  arrange  his  departure 

70 


Memories  of  the  Empress  Elizabeth 

accordingly.  I  did  so,  and  Count  Paar  brought  me  the 
Emperor's  answer  :  "  Middleton  cannot  be  received,  and 
he  must  be  courteously,  but  definitely  told  so." 

When  I  reported  accordingly  the  old  general  shook  his 
head  and  murmured  in  a  tone  of  disappointment : 

"  So  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  won't  see  me.  I  can 
understand  it.  I  must  not  be  allowed  to  awaken  the 
memories  of  past  days — days  of  tragic  associations  perhaps. 
Let  the  dead  bury  their  dead,  as  the  Bible  says.  I'm  quite 
content !  " 

Then  he  shook  my  hand  in  farewell  and  asked  me  parti- 
cularly not  to  go  to  the  station  to  see  him  off.  He  wanted 
to  be  alone  with  his  thoughts. 

I  complied  with  his  request. 

And  it  was  a  long,  long  time  before  I  spoke  about  the 
Empress  again.  Henceforth  I  was  shy  of  referring  to  her, 
after  seeing  the  Emperor's  treatment  of  Middleton. 

It  was  only  when  the  Emperor  spent  the  month  of  June, 
191 1,  at  the  Villa  of  Hermes  in  the  Lainz  Tiergarten  that 
the  Empress  Elizabeth  came  back  to  me  in  spirit,  as  it  were 
involuntarily. 

I  have  often  confessed  that  words  fail  me  to  describe 
the  spell  which  seemed  to  fall  upon  me  when  I  stayed  at 
that  chateau,  an  original  creation  of  the  Empress.  Only 
a  being  with  a  rare  feeling  for  Nature  could  have  conceived 
the  idea  of  making  a  country-place  in  the  centre  of  the 
magnificent  and  extensive  woods  of  the  Lainz  Tiergarten, 
woods  completely  cut  off  from  the  outside  world  by  a  wall 
miles  in  length  and  roamed  at  will  by  deer,  stags,  ibex, 
wild  boar  and  other  game.  The  villa  itself,  which  was  a 
masterpiece  by  virtue  of  its  contents  as  well  as  its  unity  of 
style  (Renaissance),  showed  in  its  most  trivial  detail  that  a 
woman  of  artistic  gifts,  exquisite  taste  and  profound  know- 
ledge had  reigned  there.  The  wonderful  peace,  remote  from 
the  bustle  of  life,  the  splendid  view  over  a  delicious  park 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

which  gradually  merged  into  the  dense  and  ancient  woods 
which  shut  out  the  horizon  on  every  side,  the  internal  equip- 
ment of  the  chateau,  which  comprised  an  exquisite  collec- 
tion of  choice  objets  d'art, — all  this  continually  inspired  me 
to  reflection  on  the  rare  personality  of  the  murdered  Empress. 

On  the  very  first  evening  of  my  stay  at  the  Villa  of  Hermes 
I  gave  free  expression  to  my  feelings  of  admiration  and  found 
them  warmly  echoed  by  Count  Paar,  and  more  particularly  by 
Dr.  Kerzl,  the  Court  physician.  In  his  official  capacity  the 
latter  had  accompanied  the  Empress  on  many  of  her  wander- 
ings— in  England,  the  Riviera  and  the  East — and  there 
obtained  an  insight  into  her  character  all  the  closer  because 
she  was  frank  and  candid  by  nature  and  had  no  secrets  from 
those  to  whom  she  gave  her  confidence.  That  Dr.  Kerzl  was 
entirely  worthy  of  that  confidence  will  be  borne  out  by 
all  who  have  been  lucky  enough  to  know  a  man  so  distinguished 
in  every  way. 

We  three  sat  on  the  terrace  below  the  villa  and  took 
our  fill  of  that  rare  picture  of  peace  framed  in  beauty  which 
was  before  us.  After  some  time  I  confessed  that  the  idea 
of  building  such  a  perfect  country  house  filled  me  with 
enthusiasm. 

"  That's  just  what  the  Empress  felt,"  replied  Dr.  Kerzl. 
"  She  was  an  inspired  artist ;  her  versatility  was  almost 
unrivalled,  and  no  one  had  a  stronger  feeling  for  the  beauties 
of  Nature." 

"  And  a  musician,  too  !  "  added  Count  Paar.  "  How 
bewitchingly  she  played  the  piano.  And  the  zither  !  Nor 
must  I  forget  her  dancing.  Grace  personified !  Every- 
thing about  her  was  delicate  and  refined." 

"  Same  with  her  love  for  the  Emperor  and  her  children," 
added  Dr.  Kerzl. 

I  suddenly  recollected  that  Dr.  Schmalzhofer,  the  tutor 
of  the  elder  sons  of  the  Archduchess  Marie  Valerie,  had  once 
told  me  that  the  Empress  had  bought  a  musical-box  for 

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Memories  of  the  Empress  Elizabeth 

the  small  Archdukes  on  September  9,  1898 — the  day  before 
her  assassination.  She  had  packed  it  herself  and  posted  it  to 
WaUsee  which  it  reached  on  September  12.  Tears  came  to 
everyone's  eyes  on  the  arrival  of  the  gift,  a  proof  that  in  spirit 
the  Empress  Elizabeth  was  with  her  dear  ones,  even  after 
death  had  claimed  her. 

"  When  I  think  of  the  Empress,"   I  said  at  length,  "  and 

all  I've  heard  of  her  gifts,  education  and  personal  attractions, 

I  must  admit  that  a  finer  woman  never  sat  upon  our  throne  !  " 

"  Yes,"  added  Dr.  Kerzl,  "  the  Emperor  unquestionably 

won  a  great  prize  when  he  won  her  !  " 

"  And  like  everything  else,"  interrupted  Count  Paar  in 
gloomy  tones,  "  it  turned  out  to  be  a  blank." 

A  considerable  silence  followed  this  remark,  but  Count 
Paar  eventually  interrupted  it :  "  The  Emperor  never  had 
any  luck.  It  is  quite  possible  that  a  less  brilliant  wife  would 
have  suited  him  better.  It  was  too  long  before  he  under- 
stood her." 

"  That's  quite  likely,"  agreed  Kerzl,  "  although  as  the 
Empress  told  me  herself  she  left  no  stone  unturned  at  first 
to  be  all  that  he  wanted  her  to  be." 

"  I  know  myself,"  said  Count  Paar  with  some  warmth, 
"  how  she  went  in  for  study  most  industriously  when  the 
Archduchess  Sophie,  the  Emperor's  mother,  charged  her 
wdth  being  insufficiently  educated  for  an  Emperor's  wife. 
She  spent  days  and  nights  learning  languages,  the  history  of 
Art  and  everything  else,  and  her  success  was  astonishing. 
Every  court  she  held  proved  it.  She  could  talk  intelligently 
with  every  guest  on  his  special  topic ;  so  much  so  that  dis- 
tinguished savants  have  often  told  me  that  they  could  not 
have  anticipated  such  familiarity  with  all  spheres  of  knowledge 
in  a  highly  intellectual  man,  let  alone  a  woman  and  an  empress. 
But  even  that  was  no  good.  In  the  end  she  was  regarded 
as  mentally  unbalanced  !  " 

"  That's    a    peculiar    thing,"    replied    Dr.    Kerzl    in    a 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

reflective  tone.  "  Her  invincible  horror  of  publicity  was  one  of 
the  roots  of  the  Empress's  character.  Her  super-sensitiveness 
to  the  indiscreet  curiosity  of  the  public  kept  her  from  showing 
herself  officially.  That  is  why  she  so  often  travelled  incognito, 
hoping  thereby  to  escape  recognition  and  avoid  the  inquisi- 
tive stare  of  the  crowd.  She  was  quite  aware  of  this  aversion 
and  suffered  not  a  little  in  consequence.  In  the  long  run 
she  began  to  regard  it  herself  as  a  sign  of  mental  disorder, 
particularly  after  the  death  of  the  Crown  Prince  Rudolph, 
which  permanently  upset  her  spiritual  balance.  She  said  to 
me  in  despair  one  day  : 

"  '  The  Emperor  should  never  have  married  me ;  I  have 
inherited  the  taint  of  madness !  My  son  did  too,  or  else  he 
would  never  have  treated  me  thus !  ' 

"  In  moments  of  mental  depression  she  unguardedly  used 
similar  words  to  others,  so  that  many  people  gradually  came  to 
believe  it  was  true  and  in  the  end  that  view  was  held.  Quite 
wrongly  !  The  Empress  certainly  had  her  peculiarities  :  she 
was  none  the  less  one  of  the  most  intelligent  and  pleasant 
women  I  have  ever  met." 

The  real  truth  of  this  matter  lay  in  these  words  of  Dr. 
Kerzl,  of  whom  I  have  always  had  an  extremely  high  opinion. 
I  felt  it,  so  to  speak,  instinctively  that  evening  at  the  Villa  of 
Hermes.  I  could  not  help  bringing  my  train  of  thought  to 
a  conclusion  with  the  ancillary  question  whether  the  Emperor 
really  loved  the  Empress. 

Count  Paar  insisted  that  he  was  quite  certain  of  it  for  many 
reasons,  and  particularly  from  things  said  on  occasions  on 
which  speeches  are  not,  and  cannot  be  made.  After  the 
Crown  Prince's  death,  for  instance,  the  Emperor  had  said 
to  him  : 

"  If  it  hadn't  been  for  my  wife,  who  kept  me  going  with 
her  superhuman  strength  of  mind  even  though  she  was 
stricken  with  grief  herself,  I  should  have  gone  under 
altogether." 

74 


Memories  of  the  Empress  Elizabeth 

Count  Paar  was  silent  for  a  time,  overcome  by  melancholy- 
reflections.     Then  he  continued  : 

"  More  than  nine  years  later  the  Emperor  received  the 
news  of  his  wife's  assassination.  Bereft  of  all  reason  and 
self-control  he  stammered  out :  *  No  one  knows  how  we 
loved  each  other  ! ' 

"  These  words,  wrung  out  of  him  by  grief,  were  no  pre- 
tence. The  eyes  with  which  I  watched  the  broken-down  old 
man  did  not  deceive  me.  The  Empress  had  ever  been  the 
highest  object  of  the  Emperor's  reverence  on  earth." 

That  may  be  true  enough  in  itself,  but- all  the  same  the 
Emperor's  married  life  was  an  unhappy  memory  to  him. 
It  is  proved  by  many  casual  remarks  he  made,  of  which  perhaps 
the  following  is  the  best.  During  one  of  the  usual  drives 
from  the  Hofburg  to  Schonbrunn,  on  which  the  sovereign 
was  accompanied  only  by  the  aide-de-camp  on  duty,  he  began 
to  speak  about  marriage.  The  aide-de-camp.  Commander 
Baron  von  Hohnel,  remarked  that  he  was  unmarried. 

"  You're  very  much  to  be  envied  !  "  cried  the  old  sovereign 
impetuously  ;  "  you  ought  to  be  very  glad  ;  only  those  who 
have  been  married  know  how  terribly  difficult  life  can  be. 
You  can  take  my  word  for  it ;  I  am  speaking  from  bitter 
experience  !  " 

One  can  understand  this  remark  of  the  aged  Francis 
Joseph  for  he  must  have  expected  more — far  more — from  his 
affectionate  and  highly  intellectual  wife  than  she  actually 
gave  him.  In  this  connection  I  recollected  a  significant 
remark  let  fall  by  the  Court  Chamberlain,  Count  Czirdky — 
predecessor  of  Count  August  Lichy — one  day  when  we  were 
talking  about  the  Empress.  I  noted  it  particularly  because 
Czir^ky — perhaps  the  perfect  courtier  and  certainly  one  of 
the  most  distinguished  individuals  I  ever  met  at  court — ^was 
always  a  model  of  caution  in  what  he  said.  A  number  of 
people  who  had  gathered  round  him  after  dinner  at  court 
began  to  talk  very  enthusiastically  about  the  Empress  Elisabeth, 

75 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

although  not  one  of  them  had  known  her  personally, 
and  of  course  there  were  the  usual  lamentations  for  her 
tragic  fate.  After  reflecting  a  moment  Cziraky  burst  in  with 
the  sharp  and  decided  remark  :  "  There's  no  doubt  that 
the  dead  Empress  did  a  great  deal  of  lasting  good  for  us 
Hungarians.  I'm  a  Hungarian  myself,  body  and  soul.  Yet 
I  can't  work  up  any  enthusiasm  about  her.  Indeed  I  can't ! 
Everyone  must  agree  with  me  that  she  never  had  the  slightest 
idea  how  to  play  the  part  of  her  husband's  partner  on  the 
throne,  or  to  make  his  extremely  formidable  task  any  easier  for 
him.  But  as  the  wife  of  so  sorely  tried  a  sovereign  that  was 
exactly  what  she  was  there  for  !  She  was  anything  but  equal 
to  such  a  position  and  indeed  hardly  ever  took  the  trouble 
to  fulfil  her  high  and  surely  honourable  mission,  so  that  I 
can  never  regard  the  Empress  Elizabeth  as  in  any  way  an  in- 
spiring figure.  Of  course  I  still  feel  pity  for  her,  but  not  much 
else  !  " 

To  revert  to  my  conversation  with  Count  Paar  and  Dr. 
Kerzl,  I  may  say  that  when  they  returned  to  their  rooms  I  went 
back  to  the  inner  court  of  the  villa  and  walked  about  in  one 
of  the  alleys.  On  my  left  hand  I  could  see,  half  concealed 
in  the  trees,  the  marble  statue  of  Aspasia,  the  work  of  a  master 
hand. 

Her  we  regard  as  the  friend  and  good  genius  of  the 
immortal  Pericles,  that  greatest  son  of  his  country  who  still 
seems  to  us  the  most  illustrious  figure  of  classical  Hellas. 
Perhaps  the  Empress  Elizabeth  may  once  have  contemplated 
playing  a  similar  role.  She  may  have  striven  to  copy  so 
noble  a  model.  That  she  in  no  way  succeeded  in  her  efforts 
must  have  been  one  of  the  most  terrible  disappointments  of 
her  life. 

I  could  realize  only  too  well  how  the  broken-hearted 
Elizabeth  had  chosen  this  spot,  her  favourite  residence,  for 
the  monument  of  the  celebrated  Athenian.  After  all  I  had 
heard  of  the  dead  Empress  on  that  evening  the  figure  of 

76 


Memories  of  the  Empress  Elizabeth 

Aspasia  came  to  have  a  wealth  of  almost  mystic  significance 
for  me. 

I  stood  gazing  at  it.  Lost  in  contemplation  of  this 
monument,  which  most  people  fail  to  notice,  Elizabeth's 
earthly  pilgrimage,  with  all  its  perplexities,  all  its  many 
paradoxes,  passed  clearly  before  my  eyes.  A  half-opened 
bud,  she  was  transplanted  from  an  idyllic  toy  court  to  the 
cold  Hofburg  at  Vienna.  It  froze  her.  She  was  longing 
for  a  heart  at  which  her  own  could  warm  itself,  and  found 
none.  The  humiliations  she  suffered  at  the  hand  of  the 
Archduchess  Sophie  were  intensified — probably  without  any 
evil  intention,  but  all  the  more  cruelly — by  her  husband, 
who  yielded  to  none  but  his  mother.  The  undoubted 
love  match  of  the  imperial  couple  soon  showed  rifts  which 
grew  wider  and  wider,  although  they  were  most  laboriously 
concealed  from  time  to  time.  Francis  Joseph  and  Elizabeth 
drifted  further  and  further  apart ;  their  paths  now  crossed 
only  occasionally  and  separated  again  as  soon  as  possible. 
Then  the  Empress  was  stricken  by  fate  in  the  shape  of  the 
Crown  Prince's  death.  Crushed  already,  she  no  longer 
had  the  strength  to  hold  up  against  this  trial.  She  sought 
in  vain  to  cling  to  family  ties,  but  these  were  no  longer 
strong  enough  to  bring  her  back  to  the  normal  routine 
of  daily  life,  now  that  her  whole  being  was  thrown  off  its 
balance. 

She  began  a  frantic  search  for  the  impressions  which 
travel  in  far  countries  and  the  manifold  interests  of  art  could 
offer  her. 

Such  was  the  origin  of  the  Achilleion  at  Corfu,  set  in  the 
midst  of  the  beauties  of  the  South,  of  which  the  world  heard 
so  much  at  that  time.  Opinions  on  the  subject  of  this 
creation  of  the  Empress  Elizabeth  were  extremely  conflicting, 
but  they  all  showed  that  she  no  longer  possessed  that  sure 
and  enlightened  judgment  which  she  must  have  possessed 
when  she  took  in  hand  the  erection  of  the  Villa  of  Hermes. 

n 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

The  Achilleion  may  have  been  superior  in  sheer  magnificence 
to  that  chateau,  but  from  all  I  heard  it  is  an  edifice  which 
not  only  lacks  any  approach  to  unity  of  style  but  astounds, 
rather  than  charms  the  visitor  by  a  certain  impression  of 
unrest.  This  view  was  confirmed  by  some  water-colours 
of  the  Achilleion  which  were  shown  me.  They  proved  that 
the  Empress's  main  motive  was  to  find  some  wholly  absorbing 
occupation  which  would  furnish  a  distraction  to  her  tortured 
mind  and  bleeding  heart.  Hence  the  incoherent  element 
both  in  the  structure  itself  and  its  furnishings,  the  profuse 
employment  of  all  possible  decorative  devices  without  regard 
to  their  surroundings  and  the  expenditure  of  enormous  sums 
which  could  hardly  be  justified  by  the  object  in  view.  At 
the  beginning  of  the  nineties  I  saw  in  Vienna  Professor  Matsch's 
picture  of  Achilles  which  was  intended  for  the  portico.  It 
had  been  conceived  and  inspired  by  the  Empress.  Only 
an  artist  of  the  most  subtle  gifts  could  have  imagined  a  picture 
of  such  rare  beauty. 

It  was  in  occupations  such  as  these  that  the  Empress 
found  temporary  distraction  and  possibly  a  brief  relief 
from  her  grief. 

For  nearly  ten  years  she  thus  kept  her  leaking  barque  (for 
that-  was  what  her  life  had  now  become)  afloat.  With  no 
one  at  the  helm  it  was  buffeted  hither  and  thither  by  the 
waves  until  quite  suddenly  it  sank. 

"  Who  would  do  me  any  harm  ?  "  the  Empress  Elisabeth 
is  said  to  have  remarked  before  her  last  journey  when  some- 
one warned  her  that  danger  threatened.  "  Why,  I  always 
kept  out  of  politics,  so  much  so  that  I  have  hardly  been  an 
Empress  at  all !  " 

Yet  such  a  criminal  existed,  that  Luccheni  whose  brutal 
blow  severed  Elizabeth's  life-thread,  frail  as  it  had  been  for 
so  long.  But  Elizabeth's  spirit,  which  had  suffered  so 
terribly,  was  ready  to  defy  this  last  wound  even  when  the 
murderer's  weapon  was  in  her  heart.     Though  the  blow  was 

78 


Memories  of  the  Empress  Elizabeth 

fatal  the  Empress  rose  from  the  ground,  struggled  to  the 
steamer  on  which  she  was  to  embark  at  Geneva,  and  it  was 
only  when  she  reached  the  gangway  that  she  collapsed. 
When  a  passer-by  tried  to  brush  the  dust  off  her  clothes 
she  cried  out :  "  It's  not  worth  while.  Thank  you  very 
much." 

Her  dying  words  were  words  of  thanks ! 

All  this  seemed  to  pass  before  the  eyes  of  my  mind  as  I 
gazed  at  the  marble  Aspasia  whose  outlines  were  already 
dissolving  in  the  gathering  darkness.  As  I  slowly  walked 
away  an  inspired  mood  had  me  in  its  grip.  I  felt  that 
although  I  had  only  had  a  fleeting  glimpse  of  the  Empress 
Elizabeth,  and  that  when  I  was  a  boy,  I  knew  her  better 
now  than  all  those  with  whom  she  had  been  in  daily  contact ; 
at  any  rate,  I  felt  like  that.  What  a  matchless  woman  she 
must  have  been  when  everything  she  created  spoke  of  her 
so  eloquently,  even  after  her  death.  That  carried  my  thought 
on  to  the  Emperor  and  I  sympathized  with  him,  sympathized 
deeply.  .  .  . 

The  spell  which  held  me  fast  and  kept  my  thoughts 
unchangingly  fixed  on  the  Empress  Elizabeth  was  broken  on 
the  following  day.  Early  in  the  afternoon  I  saw  Frau 
Katherina  Schratt,  the  friend  of  the  Emperor  and  his  dead 
wife,  drive  in  a  car  up  the  splendid  avenue  and  stop  at 
the  Villa  of  Hermes.  Later  on  from  my  window  I  saw  the 
Emperor  and  Frau  Schratt  walking  and  talking  amongst  the 
flower-beds  in  front  of  the  chateau,  and  then  enter  a  car- 
riage for  a  drive  in  the  park.  The  sight  did  something  to 
sober  my  imagination. 

A  few  years  later  I  became  personally  acquainted  with 
Frau  Schratt,  the  witty  artiste.  In  her  Viennese  home — 
as  eloquent  a  witness  of  the  splendid  education  and  perfect 
taste  of  Frau  Katherina  Schratt  as  the  Villa  of  Hermes  is 
of  the  Empress  Elizabeth — I  soon  realized  that  there  must 
have  been  much  in  common,  both  in  thought  and  in  action, 

79 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

between  these  two  women.  I  was  not  surprised  now  that 
the  Empress  had  always  found  pleasure  in  the  natural  wit 
and  simple,  yet  all  the  more  genuine,  kindness  of  Frau  Schratt 
so  that  she  was  ever  a  most  welcome  guest  in  the  imperial 
household.  Frau  Schratt  fully  returned  the  affection  which 
the  Empress  Elizabeth  showed  her.  Seldom  has  any  woman 
preserved  so  dear  a  memory  or  felt  such  whole-hearted 
admiration  of  another  as  Frau  Schratt  of  the  Empress.  She 
talked  to  me  several  times  about  the  dead  Empress  and 
filled  in  the  picture  for  me  by  showing  that  in  addition  to 
her  unusual  gifts  and  bewitching  beauty,  she  had  a  heart 
which  ached  to  alleviate  the  sufferings  of  humanity  and  had 
genuine  sympathy  with  its  sorrows. 

Looking  back  I  can  say  now  that  the  appearance  of  Frau 
Schratt  in  the  midst  of  the  hallowed  impressions  which  the 
Villa  of  Hermes  had  made  upon  me  cannot  be  called  an 
unwelcome  intrusion,  for  she  also  was  one  of  the  many 
who  had  certainly  been  inspired  and  carried  away  by 
Elizabeth.  The  Empress  had  feelings  of  friendship  for 
few  women,  but  there  was  no  reserve  in  her  affection  for 
Frau  Schratt.  She  was  frequently  her  guest  in  her 
quiet  home  at  Hietzing  and  was  never  happier  than 
when  her  friend  was  with  her.  Who  knows  how  often 
Frau  Schratt  drove  up  the  avenues  to  the  Villa  of  Hermes 
at  times  when  the  chateau  was  the  Empress's  one  and  only 
buen  retiro. 

My  personal  contribution  from  my  own  recollections 
of  the  Empress  Elizabeth  has  necessarily  been  but  small, 
but  my  readers  will  at  any  rate  have  realized  that  it  is  scarcely 
possible  rightly  to  estimate  her  personality  or  her  nature  by 
applying  the  ordinary  standards  of  practical  life.  A  sover- 
eign's wife  of  her  quite  special  stamp  is  not  to  be  measured 
thus.  Elizabeth  cannot  survive  that  sort  of  test.  Her 
personality  can  only  be  grasped  by  those  who  look  at  her  from 
the  purely  spiritual  point  of  view,  divorced  from  all  earthly 

80 


Memories  of  the  Empress  Elizabeth 

considerations.     How  hard  it  is  to  do  so  is  illustrated  by 
the  following  lines : 

"  Seek  her  in  the  stars,  or  the  sun's  golden  rays, 
Seek  her  in  dreams  or  prayer, 
Seek  her  in  the  world  of  ideals, 
The  Empress  Elisabeth." 


8i 


CHAPTER  IV 
MEMORIES  OF  THE  CROWN  PRINCE  RUDOLPH 

THE  great  spring  review  on  the  Schmelze  parade  ground 
in  April,  1887,  was  the  first  time  I  ever  saw  the 
Emperor  Francis  Joseph,  and  it  also  gave  me  my  first 
and  last  glimpse  of  the  Crown  Prince,  Archduke  Rudolph. 
He  was  in  command  of  the  first  detachment  to  be  reviewed, 
a  detachment  of  which  the  Technische  Militarakademie, 
of  which  I  was  a  member,  formed  part. 

On  this  occasion  I  had  plenty  of  time  to  observe  and 
study  the  Crown  Prince. 

The  impression  he  made  upon  me  was  peculiar.  He 
was  undoubtedly  a  fine,  well  set-up  figure.  He  looked  well 
in  his  smart  general's  uniform,  and  he  rode  his  thorough- 
bred with  great  skill.  But  on  the  whole  he.  looked  to  me 
tired,  bored  and  absent-minded,  so  that  even  to-day  I  can 
hardly  resist  a  feeling  of  dissatisfaction  when  I  recall  the 
incident. 

The  Crown  Prince  Rudolph  greeted  the  report  of  our 
Commanding  Officer  by  casually  touching  his  hat  with  the 
index  finger  of  his  right  hand.  He  did  not  say  a  word. 
Then  he  took  his  place  on  the  flank  of  the  detachment  and 
gazed  vacantly  into  space. 

He  had  nothing  to  say  to  any  of  the  officers  of  his  staff, 
nor  to  any  of  the  generals  present.  For  several  minutes  his 
whole  attention  seemed  to  be  claimed  by  some  mud  splashes 
on  his  boots.     (There  had  been  heavy  rain  during  the  night 

82 


Memories  of  the  Grown  Prince  Rudolph 

before,  and  the  ground  was  very  soft.)  At  his  orders  a  groom 
dismounted  and  carefully  wiped  his  shiny  boots  and  his 
trouser  bottoms  with  a  cloth.  When  this  was  over  the  Crown 
Prince  relapsed  into  his  previous  and  perhaps  studied  atti- 
tude of  unconcern  and  stared  into  space  without  taking 
the  least  notice  of  what  was  going  on  around  him. 

When  the  Emperor  arrived  the  Crown  Prince  vanished 
from  my  view.     I  never  saw  him  again. 

This  first  impression  remained,  and  perhaps  still  remains, 
the  outstanding  one  for  me.  I  hardly  ever  felt  really  drawn 
to  the  Crown  Prince.  Of  course  this  is  merely  a  subjective 
feeling  of  mine  and,  based  as  it  is  on  youthful  impressions, 
it  may  be  wholly  erroneous. 

Even  at  that  time  I  had  heard  a  good  deal  about  the 
Crown  Prince,  and  that  entirely  favourable.  Great  hopes 
were  placed  on  him.  His  striking  intellectual  gifts  and 
unusual  abilities  were  praised  in  all  quarters.  I  often  heard 
it  said  that  mentally  he  was  far  superior  to  his  imperial  father, 
so  that  greater  things  could  be  expected  from  him  than  from 
Francis  Joseph,  who  had  been  so  unfortunate  in  all  his  under- 
takings. I  must  frankly  admit  that  I  believed  that  no  longer, 
once  I  had  seen  the  Crown  Prince  himself.  He  struck  me 
as  a  man  who  was  already  worn  out  whereas  the  Emperor, 
with  his  erect  carriage  and  his  sharp  eye  taking  us  all  in  from 
head  to  foot  on  parade,  was  the  personification  of  energy. 

In  the  following  year,  when  I  was  spending  my  summer 
leave  with  my  people,  I  had  a  glimpse  of  the  Crown  Princess 
Stephanie  at  Pola,  just  as  she  was  arriving  at  the  station  to 
go  on  board  the  Imperial  yacht  Miramar.  In  contrast  to  my 
feeling  for  her  husband,  I  was  carried  away  by  my  admiration 
for  that  beautiful  woman  who  carried  herself  with  such 
charm  and  ease  and  always  had  a  friendly  smile  or  a  few 
kind  words  for  everyone.  I  compared  her  at  once  with  her 
husband,  the  absent  Crown  Prince,  of  course  to  the  dis- 
advantage of  the  latter.     On  this  point  I  was  certainly  wrong, 

83  6* 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

as  I  subsequently  heard  on  all  sides  that  the  personality  of 
the  Crown  Prince  was  in  every  respect  far  superior  to  that 
of  his  wife  who  could  hold  her  own  only  as  regards  outward 
appearance. 

A  few  months  later,  during  the  afternoon  of  January  30, 
1889,  the  news  of  the  Crown  Prince's  death  came  like  a 
thunderbolt  to  the  Technische  Militarakademie  at  which 
I  was  still  a  pupil.  All  work  was  stopped  at  once.  Breath- 
lessly we  caught  at  every  speck  of  detailed  news.  The  words 
"  hunting  accident,"  "  murder,"  "  suicide  "  were  flying 
about.  The  news  of  such  an  unexpected  disaster  threw  every- 
thing out  of  gear,  and  it  was  not  before  the  funeral  ceremonies 
that  the  waves  of  general  excitement  subsided.  With  the 
Akademie  battalion  I  stood  in  the  Mehlmarkt  opposite  the 
Church  of  the  Capuchins  when  the  young  Crown  Prince 
was  buried  in  its  crypt. 

His  career  on  earth  was  short,  and  ruthless  fate  carried 
liim  off  while  still  in  the  bloom  of  youth.  Was  it  his  own 
fault  ?  May  it  not  be  that  the  fault  lay  in  his  conception 
of  life,  a  conception  culminating  in  the  expression  courte, 
mats  bonne,  which  has  come  down  to  us  from  Madame  de 
Pompadour. 

In  the  following  September,  after  I  had  been  promoted 
Lieutenant,  I  made  an  excursion  from  Baden  to  Heiligen- 
kreuz  with  my  parents  and  a  few  friends.  There  we  were 
taken  to  the  cemetery  where  the  Crown  Prince's  companion 
in  death.  Baroness  Marie  von  Vetsera,  had  found  her  last 
resting-place.  On  the  base  of  the  cross  on  the  grave  I  read 
the  words  of  Job  : 

*'We  grow  up  as  a  flower  and  are  cut  off." 

My  heart  went  out  to  her.  I  felt  deep  sympathy  with  the 
dead  woman  and  also  with  the  Crown  Prince. 

It  was  long  before  his  death  ceased  to  be  talked  about, 
not  merely  because,  apart  from  all  the  usual  evil  consequences, 

84 


Memories  of  the  Crown  Prince  Rudolph 

there  was  no  longer  a  direct  heir  to  the  throne  of  the  Haps- 
burgs  (as  the  Crown  Prince  only  left  a  daughter),  but  mainly 
owing  to  the  mysterious  circumstances  of  the  tragedy. 

But  it  was  all  left  behind  at  last,  especially  as  the  Emperor, 
unwavering  and  unbowed,  held  the  reins  of  state  firmly  in  his 
grip  and  thus  openly  proved  that  to  him  the  fulfilment  of 
his  duty  was  more  important  than  the  melancholy  and  dis- 
heartening knowledge  that  his  son  would  no  longer  reap  the 
fruit  of  his  labour  and  strivings. 

In  any  case  at  the  time  I  took  up  my  duties  in  the  military 
cabinet  there  was  no  more  talk  about  the  Crown  Prince. 

The  remarks  I  made  in  the  last  chapter  in  reference  to 
the  Empress  Elizabeth  apply  even  more  forcibly  to  the  Crown 
Prince  Rudolph.  Besides,  nearly  twelve  years  had  passed 
since  his  death  and  the  few  traces  of  the  Crown  Prince  had 
completely  vanished.  Even  his  memory  was  no  longer  kept 
alive.  A  further  explanation  was  the  fact  that  everyone 
carefully  avoided  mentioning  the  Crown  Prince,  either  in- 
tentionally or  as  a  result  of  orders  from  above.  There  was 
apparently  a  dark  side  to  his  tragic  death,  a  smarting  wound 
which  no  man  might  touch.  Nor  must  I  omit  to  say  that 
but  few  of  the  Court  officials  with  whom  my  work  brought 
me  into  touch  had  known  the  Crown  Prince  Rudolph  per- 
sonally. 

It  is  none  the  less  somewhat  striking  that  Count  Paar, 
of  all  men,  who  usually  gave  me  his  full  confidence  could 
hardly  bring  himself  to  mention  the  Crown  Prince's  name. 
The  fact  that  he  deliberately  took  the  greatest  pains  to  avoid 
doing  so  did  not  escape  me.  I  found  this  out  on  January  30, 
1 90 1,  the  very  first  anniversary  of  Rudolph's  death  after  I  took 
up  my  duties  at  Court.  The  Emperor  had  visited  the  crypt 
of  the  Church  of  the  Capuchins  the  first  thing  in  the  morning 
to  pray  at  the  grave  of  his  son.  When  I  announced  his  return 
to  the  Hofburg  to  Count  Paar  I  made  some  reference  to  the 
melancholy  incident : 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

"  Let's  leave  that,"  said  Paar,  interrupting  me.  "  That's 
a  subject  we  don't  like  to  talk  about." 

He  hastily  began  to  talk  about  sornething  else  and  I  knew 
that  he  was  not  merely  averse  to  speaking  about  the  Crown 
Prince,  but  that  he  plainly  considered  it  essential  to  maintain 
silence  on  the  subject.  I  took  the  hint.  Even  in  conversa- 
tion with  others  I  carefully  avoided  revealing  any  sort  of 
interest  in  the  fate  of  the  dead  Archduke  Rudolph,  especially 
when  I  became  aware  that  the  Emperor  regarded  the  second 
marriage  of  the  widowed  Crown  Princess  Stephanie  as  in 
a  certain  sense  an  insult  to  himself  and  the  memory  of  his 
dead  son.  This  was  a  further  reason  for  letting  the  memory 
of  the  Crown  Prince  sleep.  Thus  the  veil  of  oblivion  which 
was  intentionally  drawn  over  him  was  even  more  impenetrable 
than  that  over  the  Empress  Elizabeth. 

It  was  only  quite  casually  and  occasionally  that  it  was 
lifted,  even  for  me. 

In  the  summer  months  the  old  Lieutenant-General 
Latour  von  Thurmburg,  formerly  the  Crown  Prince's  tutor, 
used  to  stay  as  a  guest  at  Ischl.  The  Emperor  was  very  fond 
of  this  officer,  who  had  grown  grey  in  loyal  service,  and  always 
paid  him  special  attention.  This  was  one  of  the  many  chival- 
rous characteristics  of  the  sovereign.  He  still  preserved  a 
strong  feeling  of  gratitude  to  Latour  for  the  services 
he  had  rendered  to  his  imperial  son  although  in  a  certain 
sense  they  had  borne  no  fruit. 

Until  I  knew  Latour  personally  I  had  a  certain  bias  against 
him  which  was  intensified  when  I  read  certain  publications 
which  came  into  my  hands  during  my  residence  in  Berlin  in 
1900,  and  in  which  he  was  very  badly  spoken  of.  I  held  him 
partly  responsible  for  the  Crown  Prince's  inglorious  end. 
Thus  I  was  not  anxious  to  have  any  personal  dealings  with 
him  and  it  was  with  considerable  hesitation  that  I  accepted 
the  invitation  he  once  gave  me  to  call  on  him  occasionally. 
All  the  greater  was  my  pleasure  at  finding  him  very  different 

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Memories  of  the  Crown  Prince  Rudolph 

from  what  I  had  imagined,  and  the  evenings  which  I  spent 
in  conversation  with  Latour,  who  was  not  only  extraordinarily- 
cultured  and  well-read,  but  also  extremely  kind,  were  par- 
ticularly stimulating. 

I  need  hardly  say  that  it  was  not  long  before  we  got  to 
the  subject  of  the  Crown  Prince.  I  told  him  that  I  had  never 
been  able  to  gather  any  clear  idea  of  what  he  was  like. 

"  I  can  well  understand  that,"  said  Latour.  "  I  myself 
knew  the  Crown  Prince  pretty  intimately,  but  he  always  seemed 
a  puzzle  to  me.  One  thing  I  must  say,  however;  I've  never 
met  a  more  talented  man  than  Rudolph.  If  only  he'd  had  as 
much  character  as  talent.  That's  just  where  he  fell  short. 
Everything  came  so  easily  to  him  that  in  the  long  run  he 
began  to  think  that  he  was  omnipotence  personified,  and  the 
flattering  parasites  who  hung  round  him — ^like  every  other 
Archduke — deliberately  did  everything  they  could  to  make 
him  think  that  perilous  notion  was  an  irrefutable  fact.  He 
thus  lost  his  moral  balance,  left  serious  work  alone  and  ulti- 
mately devoted  himself  to  that  unceasing  round  of  pleasure 
to  which  he  ingloriously  succumbed  only  too  swiftly." 

I  could  not  resist  objecting  that  there  must  surely  have 
been  someone  possessed  of  enough  influence  to  recall  the 
Crown  Prince  to  his  senses  in  time — the  Emperor,  the  Empress, 
or  the  Crown  Princess ! 

"  When  destiny  is  to  be  fulfilled  there  is  no  one  who  can 
stay  its  course,"  replied  Latour  in  a  tone  of  resignation. 
"  Of  course  the  Emperor  displayed — in  his  own  way ;  you 
know  him  ! — a  lively  interest  in  his  only  son,  but  you  are 
familiar  with  the  ordering  of  the  Emperor's  day.  In  his 
time-table  there  was  no  hour  set  apart  for  the  Crown  Prince. 
Yet  the  Emperor  ought  unquestionably  to  have  made  time. 
This  problem  was  far  more  important  than  most  others !  " 
said  Latour  in  melancholy  and  irritable  tones. 

A  long  silence  followed. 

Then  Latour  began  to  tell  me  how  there  had  been  from 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

the  start  a  complete  lack  of  system  in  the  Crown  Prince's 
whole  education.  The  Archduke's  tutors  were  always 
selected  for  some  particular  and  private  reason,  and  thus  their 
various  points  of  view  were  too  heterogeneous  for  the  in- 
tellectual development  of  the  Prince  to  be  really  fruitful  and 
uniform.  Most  of  them  let  him  have  his  way,  some  because 
it  was  the  line  of  least  resistance,  others  from  selfish  personal 
motives,  instead  of  using  the  necessary  vigour  to  keep  him 
to  systematic  study  and  the  honest  fulfilment  of  duty.  The 
only  strong  man  among  them.  General  Count  Gondrecourt, 
treated  the  Crown  Prince  like  a  recruit,  frightened  the  life 
out  of  him  so  that  when  he  had  finished  with  him  his  pupil 
was  intellectually  a  whipped  dog.  On  top  of  all  this  came 
that  "  archducal "  military  education,  the  sole  purpose  of 
which  was  to  rush  Rudolph  up  the  hierarchy  at  breakneck 
speed  and  familiarize  him  solely  with  the  merely  agreeable 
side  of  the  soldier's  life  such  as  formalities,  good  company 
and  outward  show.  It  was  principally  this  purely  superficial 
military  career  which  had  proved  fatal  to  the  Crown  Prince. 
He  was  far  too  gifted  not  to  realize  its  emptiness  instinctively 
and  then  convince  himself  of  it.  By  way  of  distraction  he 
tried  to  help  himself  through  this  phase  of  his  life,  which  in 
the  long  run  was  thoroughly  monotonous,  by  a  ceaseless  round 
of  pleasure.  Thus  everything  went  wrong.  The  Emperor 
either  could  not  or  would  not  take  the  trouble  to  look  closely 
.into  the  doings  of  his  son.  As  far  as  outward  appearance 
went  he  knew  nothing  of  what  was  going  on  round  the  Crown 
Prince  and  he  was  always  being  led  astray  by  the  zealously 
flattering  reports — ^perhaps  intentionally  flattering — of  his 
son. 

I  listened  to  the  old  General's  words  with  the  closest 
attention.  When  he  paused  I  encouraged  him  to  continue 
the  conversation  by  putting  the  question :  "  What  about 
the  Empress  ?  " 

"  The  Empress !  "  said  Latour  slowly.     "  She  loved  the 


Memories  of  the  Crown  Prince  Rudolph 

Crown  Prince  well  enough  and  that's  about  all  you  can 
say.  She  was  far  too  tolerant  of  everything  he  did,  good 
and  bad  alike,  and  always  gave  him  help  and  protection  so 
that  even  when  he  grew  up  he  always  relied  on  his  mother 
getting  him  out  of  his  most  foolish  scrapes.  Unfortunately, 
too,  she  never  had  any  special  influence  on  his  real  training 
— his  childhood,  when  a  mother's  hand  was  so  essential. 
It  was  just  about  then  that  she  was  away  for  years  at  a  time." 

I  could  not  help  recalling  what  Count  Paar  had  said 
on  this  subject. 

"  Then  his  marriage  destroyed  the  last  relics  of  goodness 
in  the  misguided  man  who  had  once  justified  the  brightest 
hopes,"  continued  Latour  with  a  deep  sigh. 

"  The  marriage  was  hatched  by  the  diplomats  and  the 
Emperor  was  all  fire  and  flame  for  it.  To  him,  a  legitimist 
fanatic,  it  meant  fresh  splendours  for  his  glorious  dynasty. 
Into  his  House  came  a  King's  daughter  who  was  related  to 
nearly  all  the  royal  families  of  the  day. 

"  The  Empress  Elizabeth  thought  otherwise.  For  quite 
a  long  time  she  withheld  her  consent  to  the  marriage  pro- 
posed for  her  son.  She  positively  hated  the  King  of  the 
Belgians,  Leopold  II.,  and  had  no  sort  of  liking  for  his  wife, 
the  insignificant  and  colourless  Queen  Henriette.  Nor  did 
Elisabeth  think  much  of  Princess  Stephanie.  She  con- 
sidered her  education  too  shallow  and  her  nature  too  frivolous. 
In  view  of  the  Crown  Prince's  difficult  character  the  Empress 
thought  these  elements  promised  no  good. 

"  *  Nothing  good  can  come  out  of  Belgium !  Hasn't 
Charlotte  been  experience  enough  for  us  ?  '  she  exclaimed 
bitterly." 

Our  conversation  for  that  evening  broke  off  at  that  point, 
but  we  resumed  it  a  few  days  later.  Latour  referred  to  the 
Crown  Prince's  marriage  once  more  and  endeavoured  to 
prove  that  it  had  been  a  real  disaster  from  the  very  beginning. 
As  the  Empress  Elizabeth  had  rightly  feared,   the   Crown 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

Prince,  a  highly  intellectual  and  intelligent  man  in  spite  of 
his  mistakes  and  weaknesses,  soon  found  himself  repelled 
by  his  wife  who  was  a  bigot  on  one  hand  and  on  the  other 
a  thoroughly  superficial  woman  who  cared  for  nothing  but 
social  inanities.  An  early  result  of  their  conjugal  troubles 
was  that  the  Crown  Prince  sought  distraction  elsewhere. 
As  his  home  ceased  to  have  the  slightest  attraction  for  him 
he  kept  away  from  it  as  often  and  as  long  as  he  could.  This 
behaviour  gave  Stephanie,  a  woman  inclined  to  jealousy 
in  any  case,  a  constant  excuse  for  the  most  biting  reproaches 
and  unpleasant  scenes,  and  before  long  the  marriage  was 
hopelessly  shipwrecked.  To  this  result  the  Empress  herself 
contributed,  though  perhaps  unintentionally,  by  always 
taking  her  son's  part  in  the  continual  squabbles  between  the 
couple,  and  making  no  secret  of  her  dislike  for  the  Crown 
Princess. 

"  This  was  the  time,"  said  Latour,  "  when  the  Emperor 
could  have  intervened  most  successfully  if  he  had  kept  the 
Crown  Prince's  mind  occupied,  initiated  him  into  the  business 
of  government  and  made  him  play  his  part.  Serious  pro- 
ductive work  would  have  taken  up  the  whole  of  the  Crown 
Prince's  time  and  I  am  firmly  convinced  that  if  he  had 
been  trained  properly,  in  time  he  would  have  devoted  himself 
to  such  duties  with  the  same  serious  interest  as  he  always 
displayed  in  his  private  studies  in  natural  history.  But  he 
should  have  been  found  some  occupation  more  suited  to  his 
intelligence  and  self-confidence  than  the  military  appoint- 
ments which  were  nothing  more  than  distinguished  amuse- 
ments for  archdukes,  appointments  such  as  that  '  General 
Inspectorate  of  Infantry '  which  was  established  specially 
for  the  Crown  Prince  but  was  merely  a  sinecure." 

Here  I  interrupted  with  the  question  :  "  Wasn't  the  Crown 
Prince  a  good  soldier  ?  " 

"  No,  he  lacked  almost  everything  in  that  respect !  " 
replied  Latour  in  a  decided  tone.     "  He  certainly  had  good 

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Memories  of  the  Crown  Prince  Rudolph 

military  knowledge,  but  he  wasn't  cut  out  for  an  officer. 
He  was  totally  unfitted  for  the  post  of  regimental  commander. 
When  he  was  in  temporary  command  of  the  36th  Infantry 
Regiment  at  Jungbunzlau  he  didn't  bother  about  the  men 
at  all  and  the  erratic  way  in  which  he  treated  the  officers 
was  unprecedented.  There  were  times  when  he  actually 
used  force  against  them  on  parade. 

"  The  Crown  Prince  Rudolph  hated  military  discipline 
and  looked  on  details  with  sheer  contempt.  In  this  he  was 
the  very  opposite  of  the  Emperor  with  whom  the  knowledge 
of  military  details  was  a  strong  point.  The  Crown  Prince's 
passion  for  freedom  was  an  inheritance  of  his  mother  and  it 
was  so  strong  that  Court  life  and  the  strict  etiquette  which 
the  Emperor  always  exacted  seemed  to  him  a  horrible  relic 
of  the  Middle  Ages.  Like  his  mother  he  had  as  little  to  do 
with  it  as  he  possibly  could.  Nature  and  nature  study 
were  his  special  hobby. 

"  I  must  freely  admit  that  I  seldom  met  a  more  enthu- 
siastic hunter  and  sportsman  or  a  closer  observer,"  said 
Latour. 

"  His  practical  studies  and  wide,  many-sided  knowledge  of 
natural  history  used  to  astonish  even  the  specialists." 

What  a  malicious  turn  of  fate  it  is  that  a  man  of  such 
good  disposition  should  succumb  to  the  small  trials  and 
great  temptations  of  life,  and  that  there  was  no  one  who 
was  able  to  turn  those  energies,  the  existence  of  which  was 
proved  by  the  Crown  Prince's  useful  scientific  work,  to  use 
in  that  high  calling  which  birth  had  assigned  him. 

Could  he  have  been  a  good  ruler  ?  The  question  cannot 
be  answered  offhand.  He  was  lacking  too  much  in  self- 
control  for  statesmanship.  On  the  other  hand,  with  his 
open  mind  he  would  have  completely  realized  the  practical 
needs  of  the  times  and  it  is  therefore  not  impossible  that 
the  world  might  have  been  as  pleasantly  surprised  by  him 
as  it  was  by  Edward  VII.  of  England.     He  certainly  had 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

many  points  of  similarity  with  the  latter  ;  otherwise  they 
wouldn't  have  been  such  good  friends ! 

Latour  smiled  significantly  as  he  said  :  "  The  Crown 
Prince  Rudolph  was  also  on  good  terms  with  Emperor  William 
II.,  who  was  almost  his  own  age,  though  the  Emperor,  for- 
tunately for  him,  had  been  influenced  by  the  strict  training 
to  which  Prussian  princes  are  subjected  and  could  not  there- 
force  keep  pace  with  the  Austrian  Crown  Prince  on  whose 
sayings  and  doings  there  was  no  kind  of  check."  Then 
Latour  brought  the  conversation  to  a  close  with  a  friendly 
"  More  next  time  !  " 

It  was  a  few  days  later  when  I  revisited  the  old  General 
to  whom  it  was  such  a  pleasure  to  talk.  I  found  him  in  a 
good  humour  and  thought  I  could  now  venture  to  get  some- 
thing authentic  out  of  him  on  the  subject  of  the  Crown 
Prince's  mysterious  death.  Curiously  enough,  Latour  showed 
that  he  was  not  particularly  well  informed  on  this  topic. 
I  haven't  the  slightest  doubt  that  he  told  me  what  he  actually 
knew,  but  that  was  not  much.  The  only  point  worth  noting 
is  that  Latour  was  firmly  convinced  that  the  Crown  Prince 
had  committed  suicide,  a  conviction  which  was  shared  to 
the  full  by  the  tutor  of  the  older  sons  of  the  Archduchess 
Marie  Valerie,  Doctor  Schmalzhofer,  a  man  who  was  ex- 
tremely well-informed  about  everything  occurring  in  the 
imperial  family.  In  confirmation  of  this  opinion  Doctor 
Schmalzhofer  said  that  it  was  early  in  the  morning  of  January 
30,  1889,  that  the  Crown  Prince  tried  to  kill  himself  just 
as  his  valet  Loschek  was  entering  his  room.  As  Loschek 
tried  to  prevent  him  from  carrying  out  his  intention  Rudolph 
did  not  succeed  in  killing  himself  with  the  first  shot  he  fired. 
He  had  to  fire  several  times  before  he  killed  himself,  after  a 
desperate  struggle  with  his  servant.  This,  said  Doctor 
Schmalzhofer,  was  the  explanation  of  the  severe  head  wounds 
which  were  actually  found  on  the  corpse. 

Frau  Schratt  told  me  the  same  thing  in  conversation  many 

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Memories  of  the  Crown  Prince  Rudolph 

years  later  and  added  that  Marie  Vetsera,  immediately  after 
her  last  meeting  with  the  Crown  Prince,  had  taken  poison 
and  thus  died  a  few  hours  before  Rudolph.  This  last  piece  of 
information  is  absolutely  accurate.  The  Emperor's  physi- 
cian, Doctor  Kerzl,  told  me  that  on  the  morning  of  January 
30,  it  was  proved  beyond  doubt  by  the  doctors  who  were 
summoned  that  Marie  Vetsera  had  died  several  hours  before 
the  Crown  Prince. 

The  other  versions  which  I  have  heard  from  time  to  time 
materially  conflict  with  this  one. 

After  this  little  diversion  I  will  return  to  the  topic  of 
my  conversation  with  Latour. 

As  I  have  already  said,  Latour  knew  none  of  the  im- 
portant details  of  the  drama  of  Mayerling,  but  he  told  me 
a  good  deal  that  was  interesting  about  its  preliminaries. 

According  to  him,  the  wife  of  Bruck,  the  opera  singer 
(she  had  been  divorced  by  Count  George  Larisch),  played  a 
not  unimportant  part.  She  was  a  daughter  of  the  Archduke 
Ludwig  of  Bavaria,  eldest  brother  of  the  Empress  Elizabeth, 
by  his  morganatic  marriage  with  Henriette  Mendel  who  was 
subsequently  made  Baroness  Wallersee. 

The  Empress  had  a  particularly  strong  affection  for  her 
niece  who  was  not  only  gifted  and  beautiful  but  an  out- 
standingly good  horsewoman,  a  point  which  meant  much  to 
the  Empress  Elizabeth.  In  fact,  such  was  her  affection  that 
the  Baroness,  a  very  ambitious  woman,  gradually  began  to 
hope  to  find  herself  the  wife  of  the  Crown  Prince. 

Such  an  idea,  which  could  only  seem  utterly  preposterous 
to  the  imperial  court,  was  very  soon  knocked  out  of  her  head, 
by  the  Empress  as  much  as  anyone  else,  but  to  make  assurance 
doubly  sure  Elizabeth  began  to  set  about  getting  her  niece 
married,  as  her  inordinate  ambitions  were  making  her  somewhat 
dangerous.  After  some  time  the  Empress  was  successful, 
as  a  young  and  brilliant  cavalry  officer.  Count  George  Larisch, 
turned  up  and  duly  married  the  new  peril  to  the  preservation 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

of  the  dynastic  purity  of  the  imperial  house.  Thus  the 
lady  in  question  did  not  realize  her  dream  of  standing  at  the 
Crown  Prince's  side,  though  she  was  received  with  open  arms 
in  the  highest  society  of  Vienna  as  the  avowed  favourite  of 
the  Empress.  And  in  any  case  Countess  George  Larisch  had 
thus  gained  her  main  object  of  maintaining  relations  with 
the  court,  and  that  officially. 

"  When  the  Crown  Prince  married  the  Belgian  Stephanie 
a  few  years  later,"  continued  Latour,  "  the  disappointed, 
intriguing  and  jealous  Countess  George  Larisch  made  it  her 
business  in  life  to  force  the  pair  apart  as  soon  as  possible. 
That  the  marriage  was  not  taking  a  happy  course  she  soon 
found  out.  She  devoted  herself  to  discovering  some  sore 
point  through  which  she  could  estrange  Rudolph  and 
Stephanie.  It  was  not  so  easy  at  first.  Patience  and  per- 
severance were  necessary.  Nor  was  Countess  Larisch  the 
kind  of  woman  to  set  about  her  task  with  blunt  directness. 
She  brought  a  certain  cat-like  cunning  to  the  realization  of 
her  schemes  and  she  did  not  relax  her  efforts  until  at  length 
her  reward  for  her  devilish  work  seemed  at  hand.  At  the 
Polish  Ball  in  Vienna  at  Shrovetide,  1887,  the  Baroness 
Marie  Vetsera,  a  radiant  beauty  of  nineteen,  was  introduced 
to  the  Crown  Prince.  Her  rare  attractions  at  once  made 
the  deepest  impression  upon  him.  Probably  for  the  first 
time  in  his  life  the  Crown  Prince  had  found  his  cou-p  de  foudre. 

Without  losing  a  moment  Countess  Larisch  set  to  work. 
The  long-desired  moment  had  at  length  arrived.  It  was  at 
her  house  that  the  Crown  Prince's  meetings  with  Baroness 
Vetsera  took  place.  After  these  secret  relations  had  lasted 
about  a  year  Rudolph  decided — probably  after  great  and 
continuous  pressure  from  the  Baroness — to  throw  away  all 
his  rights  and  honours,  not  to  mention  his  future  prospects, 
and  marry  her.  With  a  view  to  getting  his  marriage  with 
Stephanie  dissolved  he  first  applied  to  Pope  Leo  XIII.  The 
latter  had  no  alternative  but  to  refer  the  matter  for  decision 

94 


Memories  of  the  Crown  Prince  Rudolph 

to  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph.  Utterly  unprepared,  the 
Emperor  was  absolutely  astounded  by  the  Pope's  revelations. 
Overwhelmed  with  grief  and  rage  he  summoned  the  Crown 
Prince  to  his  presence  and  told  him  in  terrible  agitation  and 
with  brutal  candour  that  on  no  condition  would  he  sanction 
such  insane  behaviour.  The  Emperor  was  so  deeply  affected 
by  the  Crown  Prince's  preposterous  request  that  after  this 
talk  with  his  son  he  had  a  bad  fainting  fit  and  it  was  with 
considerable  difficulty  that  he  could  be  brought  round.  That 
was  probably  towards  the  end  of  January,  1889,  and  on  the 
thirtieth  the  Crown  Prince's  love  affair  came  to  its  ghastly 
end  in  the  "  tragedy  of  Mayerling." 

That  was  the  last  time  I  discussed  this  subject  with  Latour. 

Where  would  the  Hapsburg  Empire  be  now  if  the  Crown 
Prince  had  lived  and  taken  a  more  serious  view  of  the  obliga- 
tions his  high  position  involved  ?  In  this  affair,  as  in  so  many 
others,  that  mysterious  evil  fate  which  ever  dogged  the 
Emperor's  steps  played  a  large  part. 

I  never  realized  the  full  scale  of  this  horrible  tragedy 
until  I  came  to  speak  of  the  Crown  Prince  in  those  talks  with 
General  Middleton  to  which  I  have  previously  referred. 

On  our  walks  in  the  Lauffen  Wald  at  Ischl  he  told  me 
that  he  had  never  ceased  to  blame  the  Crown  Prince  for  his 
scandalous  mode  of  life,  particularly  when  it  went  so  far  as 
in  the  case  of  Baroness  Vetsera. 

I  endeavoured  to  find  a  certain  measure  of  excuse  in  the 
fact  that — as  I  was  told — the  Countess  George  Larisch  had 
designedly  enticed  him  into  a  trap  when  she  arranged  his 
meetings  with  Marie  Vetsera  at  her  house. 

"  There's  no  truth  in  that,"  Middleton  snapped.  "  I 
know  better.  The  Crown  Prince's  relations  with  the  Baroness 
really  began  in  England.  There's  no  secret  about  it  because 
it's  associated  with  an  incident  which  caused  a  most  unpleasant 
scandal  at  the  British  court. 

"  For  Queen  Victoria's  fifty-year  jubilee,  in  June,  1887, 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

it  was  intended  that  the  Emperor  of  Austria  and  his  wife 
should  be  represented  in  London  by  the  Crown  Prince 
Rudolph  and  the  Crown  Princess  Stephanie.  A  short  time 
before,  however,  Marie  Vetsera  went  to  visit  her  sister  who 
lived  in  England,  It  strikes  me  as  more  than  probable  that  she 
did  so  because  she  could  meet  Rudolph  more  frequently  and 
less  conspicuously  in  a  foreign  country  than  was  possible  in 
Vienna.  I  don't  know  how  Stephanie  got  to  know  that  the 
Baroness  had  gone  to  England,  but  she  obstinately  refused 
to  accompany  the  Crown  Prince  for  the  jubilee  festivities. 
Prayers  and  entreaties  were  of  no  avail.  The  Emperor  and 
Empress's  efforts  had  no  effect  nor  had  those  of  the  King 
and  Queen  of  Belgium  who  were  also  expected  in  London. 
Stephanie  would  have  nothing  to  do  with  Queen  Victoria's 
jubilee.  The  Queen  regarded  it  as  an  unforgivable  insult 
and  in  addition  the  unhappy  differences  between  the  Crown 
Prince  and  his  wife  attained  the  widest  publicity.  Rudolph 
was  extremely  enraged  at  his  wife's  behaviour  and  ultimately 
travelled  to  England  alone.  There  he  met  Baroness  Vetsera, 
who  urged  him  to  get  rid  of  Stephanie  once  and  for  all.  In 
any  case  the  absent  are  always  in  the  wrong,  and  here  the 
absent  one  was  the  Crown  Prince's  wife.  After  this  visit 
of  Rudolph  to  London  their  marriage,  which  in  any  case  was 
then  only  a  formality,  was  hopelessly  shattered." 

When  I  cautiously  tried  to  bring  the  conversation  round 
to  the  Crown  Prince's  tragic  end  Middleton  at  once  took  up 
the  topic  and  remarked  in  his  blunt  way — probably  not  with- 
out a  large  measure  of  truth — that  the  most  interesting  thing 
about  Rudolph  had  been  his  death.  "  There's  nothing 
very  noteworthy  about  his  life,"  said  the  English  general 
caustically. 

Middleton  was  fairly  well-informed  on  the  subject  o^ 
the  Crown  Prince's  death  inasmuch  as  the  Empress  Elizabeth 
had  told  him  a  good  deal  about  it  during  her  visits  to  France. 
One   of   the   peculiarities   of   this   usually  discreet   but  not 

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IFacing  p.  96 


Memories  of  the  Crown  Prince  Rudolph 

unapproachable  woman  was  that  she  would  freely  discuss  the 
most  confidential  matters  with  persons  who  happened  to  have 
won  her  sympathy  for  the  moment.  She  did  it  indis- 
criminately, as  her  mood  prompted  her,  with  her  language 
professors,  her  friseuses,  companions  on  her  walks  and  rides 
and  occasionally  even  with  servants.  She  never  honoured  her 
official  entourage — maids  of  honour,  gentlemen  in  waiting  and 
so  forth — with  the  same  candour. 

Middleton  was  one  of  those  with  whom  the  Empress  Eliza- 
beth talked  without  reserve  and  he  acquired  a  good  deal  of 
authentic  information  through  her.  What  he  told  me 
about  the  Crown  Prince's  death  also  had  that  character. 

I  was  at  once  struck  with  the  fact  that  Middleton  dis- 
missed the  widespread  legend  of  the  Crown  Prince's  suicide 
as  a  silly  invention.  He  was  emphatic  that  the  Empress 
always  insisted  that  her  only  son  had  been  murdered.  Mid- 
dleton could  not  say  who  had  committed  the  crime.  He  only 
knew  that  Rudolph  had  fallen  a  victim  to  one  of  his  love 
affairs. 

"  But  not  his  love  affair  with  Marie  Vetsera^'^  he  added  in 
an  authoritative  tone. 

This  was  something  quite  new  and  it  amazed  me  not  a 
little. 

On  the  other  hand  Middleton  could  not  say  much  in 
reply  to  further  questions  I  put  to  him.  He  only  knew  what 
the  Empress  had  told  him — that  another  love  affair  was  in 
progress  at  Mayerling  and  that  it  ended  with  his  death  on 
January  30,  1889. 

Marie  Vetsera's  fate  had  no  further  interest  for  Middleton. 
An  oddity  like  him  was  totally  indifferent  to  the  catastrophe 
which  had  given  rise  to  so  much  talk.  When  the  Empress 
once  spoke  to  him  about  the  terrible  event  he  had  listened, 
of  course,  and  retained  many  details  in  his  wonderful  memory, 
but  he  had  not  gone  so  far  as  to  ask  any  questions.  All  he 
knew  was  that  in  the  stormy  discussion  between  the  Emperor 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

and  the  Crown  Prince  on  the  day  before  the  latter's  death, 
Francis  Joseph  had  definitely  forbidden  his  son  to  have  any 
further  deaHngs  with  Marie  Vetsera  under  any  circumstances 
whatever.  The  Crown  Prince  bowed  to  the  inevitable, 
decided  to  break  with  Marie  Vetsera  and  wrote  to  her  to 
that  effect.  She  followed  him  to  Mayerling  and  tried  to 
win  him  back  by  a  meeting  with  him.  As  this  last  effort 
failed  she  took  her  own  life. 

Such  was  Middleton's  account  of  the  events  of  January 
29  and  30,  1889,  based  on  what  the  Empress  had  told 
him. 

He  added  in  conclusion  that  after  the  Emperor  had  re- 
covered from  the  first  shock  he  soon  got  over  the  loss  of  his 
son,  particularly  as  the  autopsy  had  revealed  symptoms  of 
advanced  paralysis  which  in  all  probability  would  have  carried 
him  off  within  a  year. 

The  truth  of  this  report  was  emphatically  confirmed 
in  a  conversation  I  subsequently  had  with  the  royal  physician, 
Dr.  Kerzl.  His  authority  was  his  predecessor,  Hofrat  Dr. 
Baron  von  Widerhofer,  who  had  conducted  the  post-mortem, 
and  in  so  doing  made  the  discovery.  When  Widerhofer, 
with  not  unnatural  apprehension,  told  the  Emperor  what  he 
had  found,  to  his  great  surprise  the  sovereign  actually  regarded 
the  news  in  the  light  of  consolation  for  he  simply  remarked  : 
"  God's  ways  are  inscrutable.  Perhaps  He  has  sent  me 
this  trial  to  spare  me  a  yet  harder  one  !  " 

Middleton  can  hardly  have  had  very  warm  feelings  for 
Crown  Prince  Rudolph,  as  he  concluded  with  the  harsh 
words :  *'  He  lived  at  far  too  great  a  pace,  and  was  a  wreck 
when  death  carried  him  off.  How  could  anyone  suppose 
that  a  man  with  such  a  character  would  lay  violent  hands  on 
himself.  It  takes  moral  courage  to  commit  suicide,  par- 
ticularly when  love,  which  implies  deep  feelings,  is  the  cause. 
You'll  search  in  vain  for  anything  like  that  in  Rudolph." 

Middleton  told  me  that  the  Empress  Ehzabeth  on  the 

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Memories  of  the  Crown  Prince  Rudolph 

other  hand  was  anything  but  consoled  by  the  post-mortem 
discovery  I  have  mentioned.  It  was  a  bitter  grief,  intensified 
a  thousand  times  by  the  pangs  of  conscience,  because  she 
blamed  herself  bitterly  for  not  having  taken  greater  care 
of  her  beloved  son  and  brought  his  life  back  into  better  paths 
by  keeping  him  away  from  the  unending  round  of  pleasures 
and  dissipations. 

"  But  could  she  have  done  it,  poor  woman  ?  "  reflected 
Middleton.  "  That  was  another's  duty,  a  sacred  and  im- 
perative duty !  " 

The  old  English  general  was  obviously  referring  to  the 
Emperor  Francis  Joseph.  He  certainly  held  him  responsible 
for  much  that  had  happened  in  his  family.  The  remark 
may  well  have  enshrined  the  Empress's  view  also. 

The  principal  comment  on  Middleton's  revelations  was 
that  they  were  open  to  the  startling,  and  to  me  unanswer- 
able, objection  that  they  failed  to  show  any  direct  connection 
between  the  death  of  the  Crown  Prince  and  that  of  Marie 
Vetsera.  I  had  never  heard  his  version  before  and  I  could  not 
bring  myself  wholly  to  accept  it. 

So  much  has  been  said  and  written  about  Rudolph's  death 
that  it  really  seems  superfluous  to  return  to  the  matter  once 
more.  Most  of  the  many  versions  which  had  some  claim  to 
be  authentic  led  to  the  assumption  that  Rudolph  had  com- 
mitted suicide.  Such  was  the  official  version,  though  un- 
officially it  was  widely  reported  that  he  had  been  murdered 
either  by  Marie  Vetsera  or  by  one  of  the  guests  present  at 
the  meeting  in  the  remote  hunting-lodge  in  Lower  Austria. 
The  suicide  of  the  Baroness  on  the  other  hand  had  apparently 
been  proved. 

But  from  what  gradually  came  to  my  ears  I  am  now 
convinced,  and  on  good  grounds,  that  Rudolph  met  his  death 
in  a  quite  different  way. 

I  will  state  shortly  how  I  came  to  my  present  opinion. 

A  few  days  after  the  fateful  January  30,   1889,  my  old 

99  7* 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

friend  and  schoolmate,  Gmeiner,  told  me  that  an  under- 
gamekeeper  from  Mayerling  had  revealed  to  him  in  confidence 
that  the  Crown  Prince  had  been  found  on  the  morning  of 
January  30  lying  in  front  of  the  gamekeeper's  lodge  with  a 
battered  skull.  He  had  himself  assisted  to  carry  the  corpse 
into  the  hunting-lodge.  Suicide  was  out  of  the  question, 
if  only  because  Rudolph  had  no  weapon  of  any  kind  with  him. 

Suspicion  at  once  fell  upon  the  gamekeeper  and  he 
vanished  without  leaving  any  traces. 

As  I  have  already  said,  the  Crown  Prince  was  subsequently 
never  mentioned  in  court  circles.  Not  before  the  unveiling 
of  Rudolph's  monument  in  the  park  at  Budapest  in  the  spring 
of  1910  was  any  reference  made  to  the  departed  by  members 
of  the  court.  I  was  talking  on  official  matters  with  Count 
Ludwig  Apponyi,  the  Hungarian  Grand  Chamberlain,  and 
he  began  to  discuss  the  small  and  unpretentious  monument 
representing  the  Crown  Prince  in  hunting  dress.  I  happened 
ever  so  casually  to  mention  Gmeiner's  version  of  the  tragedy. 
I  was  immediately  amazed  by  the  impression  my  words 
made  on  the  Count,  who  was  usually  courtesy  itself,  and  the 
perfect  type  of  the  purely  conventional  and  self-possessed 
courtier.  He  stared  at  me  like  a  lunatic  and  it  was  some 
time  before  he  recovered  himself  sufficiently  to  ask  me  whether 
I  believed  that  version  myself.  When  I  replied  that  I  was 
almost  tempted  to  accept  it,  he  burst  out : 

"  Well,  it's  the  solemn  truth !  But  keep  it  to  yourself. 
We  had  it  straight  from  a  member  of  the  hunting  staff  at 
Mayerling  immediately  after  the  Crown  Prince's  death." 

I  ventured  to  suggest  that  I  could  not  altogether  reconcile 
this  version  with  Marie  Vetsera's  presence  in  Mayerling  and 
her  death  there.  Count  Apponyi  admitted  this  gap  in  the 
story,  but  thought  that  it  was  bridged  by  the  assumption  that 
the  gamekeeper  had  been  employed  by  the  Baroness  to  commit 
the  murder.  The  Count  seemed  to  know  nothing  further, 
but  regarded  it  as  probable  that  it  was  only  after  Rudolph 

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Memories  of  the  Crown  Prince  Rudolph 

had  paid  his  last  account  that  Marie  Vetsera  had  voluntarily 
taken  her  own  life.  He  maintained  that  she  was  an  excep- 
tionally excitable  and  ambitious  woman,  whose  vanity  had 
been  deeply  wounded  so  that  she  was  quite  capable  of  the  deed. 

I  confess  I  did  not  regard  Apponyi's  conclusion  as  con- 
vincing.    A  link  was  missing  in  the  chain. 

It  was  quite  a  short  time  ago,  two  years  after  the  de- 
struction of  the  Hapsburg  Empire,  that  chance  brought  me 
new  light  on  this  affair,  which  had  hitherto  remained  to  a 
large  extent  shrouded  in  darkness. 

Rear-Admiral  Ludwig  Ritter  von  Hshnel,  well  known 
as  an  explorer,  who  had  been  one  of  the  Emperor's  Aides-de- 
Camp  at  the  beginning  of  the  century,  told  me  the  following 
story.  I  can  give  the  most  complete  assurances  that  he 
had  it  from  people  whose  credibility  both  he  and  I  regard  as 
absolutely  beyond  suspicion. 

Count  Hoyos — one  of  the  few  witnesses  of  the  Mayerling 
drama — immediately  after  January  30,  1889,  wrote  to  a  near 
relation  in  Hungary  about  the  Crown  Prince's  death,  and 
gave  a  detailed  description  of  the  circumstances.  He  recorded 
in  black  and  white  the  fact  that  on  the  fatal  day  Rudolph 
was  lying  with  a  battered  skull  in  the  snow  in  front  of  the 
gamekeeper's  lodge  at  Mayerling.  It  was  exactly  as  the  under- 
gamekeeper  had  said  and  Count  Ludwig  Apponyi  had  believed. 

But  this  letter  shed  a  good  deal  more  light  on  the  context. 
It  appears  that  the  Crown  Prince  had  established  relations 
some  time  previously  with  the  young  and  attractive  wife 
of  the  gamekeeper.  She  was  known  as  a  great  beauty.  The 
man  was  extremely  jealous  and  simply  would  not  tolerate 
the  association.  He  accordingly  gave  Rudolph  several 
warnings,  but  all  in  vain.  On  the  fatal  night  he  found  the 
Crown  Prince  in  his  house  and  at  once  settled  accounts  with 
him.  Rudolph  came  to  a  miserable  end.  His  corpse  was 
thrown  out  into  the  snow  in  front  of  the  lodge  and  remained 
there  till  it  was  found  next  morning. 

lOI 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

There  were  several  witnesses  to  the  carrying  of  the  body- 
to  the  hunting-lodge.  The  under-gamekeeper  I  have  men- 
tioned, Gmeiner's  contemporary,  was  one  of  them. 

I  must  add  that  a  day  or  two  after  the  letter  in  question 
reached  the  addressee  she  received  a  telegram  from  Count 
Hoyos  imploring  her  in  God's  name  to  reveal  the  contents 
of  the  letter  to  no  one,  and  destroy  it  at  once.  This  request 
was  followed  by  a  letter  to  the  same  effect,  and  it  was  stated 
that  the  reason  was  on  the  Emperor's  express  orders. 

But  it  was  already  too  late.  Several  persons — including, 
presumably.  Count  Apponyi — already  knew  what  was  in  the 
letter. 

On  the  morning  of  January  30,  1889,  there  was  another 
corpse  in  the  hunting-lodge  at  Mayerling.  It  was  the  corpse 
of  Marie  Vetsera. 

What  was  to  be  said  about  her  death  ?  Was  it  not  directly 
connected  with  that  of  the  Crown  Prince  ? 

However  extraordinary  it  may  seem  the  answer  is  in  the 
negative.  It  is  true  that  both  Rudolph  and  Marie  Vetsera 
died  at  approximately  the  same  time.  Yet  it  would  appear 
more  than  questionable  whether  the  Crown  Prince  ever  knew 
of  the  Baroness's  suicide.  The  latter  undoubtedly  never  heard 
of  Rudolph's  end  as  the  medical  evidence  proved  conclusively 
that  her  death  preceded  his  by  several  hours. 

General  Middleton  was  thus  perfectly  right  that  there 
was  no  connection  between  the  two  deaths. 

With  the  help  of  what  has  been  said  it  becomes  easy 
to  reconstruct,  at  any  rate  hypothetically,  the  course  of  events 
on  the  29th  and  30th  January,  1889. 

After  receiving  his  father's  emphatic  refusal  to  consent 
to  the  proposed  marriage  with  Marie  Vetsera,  the  affair  was 
all  over  for  the  Archduke  Rudolph.  He  probably  laid  the 
situation  frankly  before  the  Baroness  and  thought  he  would 
be  doing  her  a  kindness  by  disappearing  for  the  moment 
from   her   immediate   neighbourhood.     Hence   his   flight   to 

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Memories  of  the  Crown  Prince  Rudolph 

Mayerling.  The  choice  of  this  particular  spot  was  doubtless 
influenced  by  the  presence  there  of  the  gamekeeper's  wife, 
who  has  been  described  by  Count  Hoyos  as  a  striking  and 
unusual  figure.  Here,  then,  was  an  opportunity  for  diversion 
and  change  which  would  appeal  to  the  well-known  cynicism 
of  the  Crown  Prince. 

That  Marie  Vetsera  should  hurry  to  Mayerling  after  the 
Crown  Prince  for  a  last  meeting  must  have  been  very  vexa- 
tious for  him.  In  any  case  the  final  parting  took  place,  after 
which  the  Baroness  probably  withdrew  to  one  of  the  rooms 
in  the  castle  she  had  occupied  on  previous  visits  and  com- 
mitted suicide. 

After  the  interview  the  Crown  Prince  did  not  trouble 
his  head  further  about  Marie  Vetsera.  He  lost  no  time  in 
seeking  the  side  of  the  beautiful  wife  of  the  keeper,  having 
already  deliberately  sent  the  husband  off  on  some  hunting 
errand,  which  was  designed  to  keep  him  away  from  the  lodge 
for  some  hours.  In  Count  Hoyos'  letter  to  which  I  have 
referred  this  last  detail  is  emphasized.  It  appears,  however, 
that  the  gamekeeper  did  not  follow  the  Crown  Prince's  in- 
structions, but  remained  near  the  house  watching  until  the 
Archduke  Rudolph  appeared.  He  stopped  him  and  the 
Archduke  met  his  death. 

Thus  a  higher  dispensation  had  found  Marie  Vetsera 
an  avenger  without  any  effort  of  her  own. 

But  the  wrong  that  Rudolph  was  committing  immediately 
before  his  death  against  his  wife,  the  Archduchess  Stephanie, 
was  a  much  more  serious  one. 

With  his  unfailing  chivalry  the  Emperor  showed  every 
attention  to  the  widow  of  his  only  son,  even  after  she  became 
the  wife  of  Count  Elemer  Lonyay,  although  he  not  only 
disapproved  of  this  marriage  but  regarded  it  almost  as  an 
insult  to  the  imperial  house. 

In  the  autumn  of  1903,  when  Stephanie  lay  ill  for  months 
at  the  Hotel  Imperial  in  Vienna,  the  Emperor  was  as  solicitous 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

in  his  inquiries  as  if  she  had  been  a  member  of  his  family. 
He  sent  her  doctors,  medicines  and  food  from  the  imperial 
kitchens  and  several  times  visited  her  personally.  When  she 
recovered  his  delight  was  unmistakable. 

When  Countess  Stephanie  Lonyay  came  to  Vienna  she 
was  always  invited  to  the  imperial  table,  where,  on  one 
occasion,  I  was  surprised  to  observe — for  she  now  no  longer 
ranked  as  Crown  Princess — that  the  Emperor  gave  her  the 
place  at  his  right  hand.  He  honoured  in  her  the  memory 
of  the  long-dead  son  whose  name  was  now  never  so  much  as 
mentioned. 

Crown  Prince  Rudolph  was  a  peculiar  kind  of  meteor. 
He  shot  up  swiftly  into  the  sky  and  then  suddenly  vanished 
long  before  the  time  for  descent  had  come.  Of  the  three 
children  of  the  Emperor  who  survived  early  childhood  he  was 
the  only  one  who  resembled  his  mother.  This  resemblance 
was  not  only  external,  for  he  had  inherited  her  beautiful, 
clear-cut  features,  but  he  also  had  her  mental  gifts.  From 
the  Empress  Elizabeth  came  his  exceptional  intelligence, 
clear,  alert  shrewdness  and  his  highly  developed  aptitude  for 
art  and  science.  If  only  he  had  combined  with  these  qualities 
his  father's  iron  sense  of  duty  ! 

Unfortunately,  however,  his  mother's  restless  blood 
pulsed  through  his  veins. 

This  is  how  he  was  described  to  me  by  the  chaplain  of  the 
royal  castle  in  Budapest,  Abbot  Kanter,  who  knew  the  Crown 
Prince  well,  heard  much  about  him  in  Vienna  and  had  taken  a 
special  interest  in  his  career.  Kanter  wished  to  publish  a 
monogram  on  the  Crown  Prince  Rudolph  with  the  object 
of  making  his  future  plans  known  to  posterity,  or  rather  to 
show  what  would  have  been  the  future  development  of  the 
Austro-Hungarian  Empire  if  the  career  of  the  Crown  Prince 
had  not  come  to  an  untimely  end.  But  even  Kanter  saw  that 
he  would  be  faced  with  great  difficulties  as  he  really  knew 
very  little — like  everyone  else  with  whom  I  have  talked  about 

104 


Memories  of  the  Crown  Prince  Rudolph 

the  Crown  Prince — about  Rudolph's  political  programme 
or  views  on  such  matters.  I  am  inclined  to  believe  that 
such  a  programme  did  not  exist  because  the  Crown  Prince 
did  not  take  much  interest  in  political  questions.  He  was 
unfortunately  not  encouraged  by  his  father  to  devote  himself 
to  affairs  which  it  is  important  for  a  crown  prince  to  under- 
stand. He  accordingly  took  the  line  of  least  resistance  and 
left  them  severely  alone. 

It  was  Abbot  Kanter's  opinion  that  Rudolph's  great  mis- 
fortune had  been  the  lack  of  anyone  to  set  him  on  his  feet 
again  from  time  to  time  and  force  him,  by  fair  means  or  foul, 
to  realize  his  obligations  as  heir  to  the  throne.  Neither  the 
Emperor  nor  Empress,  and  least  of  all  the  Archduchess 
Stephanie,  played  the  part.  The  worst  feature  of  all  was 
that  the  Crown  Prince,  at  first  unwittingly,  but  later  habitu- 
ally, gathered  round  himself  a  band  of  associates  whose  in- 
fluence was  fatal  at  an  age  when  he  should  have  been  educating 
himself  earnestly  and  purposefully  for  the  great  position 
he  was  to  fill. 

In  this  Abbot  Kanter's  view  coincided  with  that  of 
Lieutenant-General  von  Latour. 

Von  Latour  held  Rudolph's  friends  in  military  circles 
responsible  for  his  undoing  ;  Kanter,  on  the  other  hand, 
blamed  his  scientific  friends  and  particularly  his  publicist 
and  journalist  associates. 

The  misguided  tactics  of  the  Crown  Prince's  entourage 
were  to  plunge  him  into  a  sea  of  pleasure  and  there  drown 
him.  The  Archdukes  always  found  gay  companions,  who  would 
share  their  debauches,  more  congenial  than  serious-minded, 
conscientious  men  who  reminded  them  of  irksome  duty  and 
dignity.  It  always  ended  in  the  repulse  of  the  sound  ele- 
ments whenever  the  others  were  at  hand,  and  the  latter 
remained  masters  of  the  situation. 

We  must  not  overlook  the  ease  with  which  all  the  pleasures 
of  life  were  placed  within  the  reach  of  the  Archdukes.     Apart 

105 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

from  money,  which  was  at  their  disposal  in  abundance,  there 
were  many  circles  of  society  which  regarded  it  as  an  honour 
to  draw  in  the  princes,  even  at  the  expense  of  propriety  and 
decency.  Thus  the  way  was  cleared  for  the  most  unblushing 
and  unprecedented  libertinism. 

According  to  Kanter  there  was  yet  another  circumstance 
to  be  considered  in  judging  Crown  Prince  Rudolph.  Rudolph's 
aversion  to  religion  was  imputed  by  Kanter  to  the  influence 
of  the  freemasons.  This,  he  thought,  was  exerted  through 
the  men  with  whom  the  Crown  Prince  came  into  contact 
in  connection  with  his  scientific  studies  and  the  publication 
of  his  work. 

Certainly  the  Crown  Prince  associated  himself  with  some 
very  questionable  people  in  the  course  of  his  literary  activities, 
but  the  warnings  of  genuine  well-wishers  were  of  no  avail, 
for  he  would  not  allow  any  interference  with  his  intercourse 
with  such  people  and  when  they  appealed  to  him  these  rela- 
tions developed  into  intimacy.  This,  Kanter  argued,  led 
to  the  Crown  Prince's  atheism,  and  finally  to  epicurean  views 
of  life.  The  man  to  help  him  to  the  unrestrained  satisfac- 
tion of  all  his  desires  was  not  long  in  presenting  himself — 
the  Crown  Prince's  Chamberlain,  Admiral  Count  Bombelles. 
This  man  showed  a  masterly  capacity  for  flinging  open  to 
the  Prince  all  the  doors  of  worldly  distraction  and  even 
crime.  Now  restraint  was  thrown  to  the  winds ;  the  Prince 
plunged  headlong  into  all  possible  and  impossible  adventures 
while  Count  Bombelles  played  the  role  of  Mephistopheles 
to  perfection.  He  is  the  man,  Kanter  maintained  repeatedly, 
who  has  the  tragedy  of  the  Crown  Prince  on  his  conscience. 
This  the  Emperor  realized,  but  alas,  much  too  late.  Bom- 
belles' name  ever  after  was  odious  to  the  Emperor. 

Doctor  Schmalzhofer  told  me  the  following  anecdote 
in  this  connection  : 

When  the  Archduchess  Marie  Valerie  wished  to  appoint 
a  near  relative  of  the  Admiral  as  her  lady-in-waiting,  the 

io6 


Memories  of  the  Crown  Prince  Rudolph 

Emperor  consented,  but  could  not  refrain  from  saying,  when 
Countess  Bombelles  presented  herself  before  him  : 

"  The  Archduchess  has  chosen  you  as  her  lady-in-waiting, 
and  I  have  acceded  to  her  wish.  You  will  realize,  however, 
what  self-restraint  it  costs  me  to  have  anyone  of  your  name 
at  my  court  again." 

There  can  be  no  manner  of  doubt  that  a  heavy  burden 
of  responsibility  rests  on  the  shoulders  of  Count  Bombelles, 
inasmuch  as  he  enticed  the  Crown  Prince  into  paths — or  at 
any  rate  did  not  keep  him  from  them — which  ultimately 
led  to  excesses  that  everywhere  undermined  the  reputation 
of  the  imperial  house. 

It  must  be  admitted  of  course  that  in  earlier  times  not  all 
the  members  of  this  ancient  family  had  been  paragons  of 
virtue ;  but  outwardly,  at  any  rate,  they  always  made  an 
effort  to  preserve  their  dignity  and  observe  the  necessary 
decorum  in  their  pleasures.  The  Archduke  Rudolph,  how- 
ever, considered  such  restraint  quite  unnecessary.  He  fell 
low  in  his  search  for  amusement  and  paid  no  regard  whatever 
to  public  opinion.  Indeed  he,  so  to  speak,  struck  it  in  the 
face  daily  and  from  all  that  I  have  heard  in  very  well-informed 
quarters  he  regarded  that  as  the  very  thing  to  give  his  ad- 
ventures a  real  spice. 

Such  behaviour  does  not  go  unpunished. 

How  is  the  public  to  bring  itself  to  regard  a  man  whom  it 
sees  wallowing  shamelessly  in  low  and  vulgar  passions  with 
the  respect  and  reverence  due  to  one  who  stands  at  the  summit 
of  the  social  pyramid  ?  An  heir  to  the  throne  should  never 
expose  his  future  subjects  to  such  a  mental  conflict.  If  he 
does  he  is  himself  blindly  laying  the  axe  to  the  tree  of  the 
monarchical  principle — a  principle  which  the  modern  spirit 
has  already  undermined  not  a  little.  He  is  himself  setting 
fire  to  the  house  bequeathed  to  him  by  his  forefathers  as  the 
most  precious  of  inalienable  possessions. 

Such  wanton  behaviour  can  only  be  branded  as  a  crime, 

107 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

and  of  that  crime  the  Crown  Prince  Rudolph  and  his  voluntary 
and  involuntary  accomplices  were  unquestionably  guilty. 

To  return  to  Abbot  Kanter,  I  should  add  that  in  his 
talks  about  the  Crown  Prince  he  did  not  forget  the  Emperor's 
inadequacy  in  all  that  specially  concerned  the  members  of 
his  household.  Even  in  the  case  of  his  own  son  he  thought 
he  had  done  all  that  was  necessary  when  he  had  made  the 
traditional  cut-and-dried  appointments  of  teachers  and 
tutors,  together  with  the  usual  number  of  adjutants  and 
household  officials  appointed  on  much  the  same  lines.  Even 
in  these  details,  so  important  both  to  himself  and  his  son, 
the  Emperor  was  unable  to  rise  above  the  stereotyped  bureau- 
cratic tradition,  completely  overlooking  the  fact  that  in  such 
questions  the  human  element  is  all-important.  This  un- 
fortunately the  Emperor  disregarded  and  so  failed  to  check 
Rudolph's  downward  course  in  time.  When  at  last,  much 
too  late,  he  began  to  realize  what  he  had  done,  he  again 
adopted  the  characteristic  course  of  simply  avoiding  all 
reference  to  the  matter,  which  was  unpleasant  to  him  and 
might  disturb  his  plans. 

"  By  this  I  do  not  mean,"  Kanter  continued  his  argument, 
"  that  there  would  not  in  any  case  have  been  serious  friction 
between  the  Emperor  and  the  Crown  Prince,  particularly 
when  the  latter's  matrimonial  difficulties  began  to  grow 
acute.  There  were  often  momentary  sparks,  but  as  a  rule, 
the  Emperor  refrained  from  probing  beneath  the  surface, 
for  fear  of  coming  upon  festering  wounds.  For  this  the 
Crown  Prince  had  to  pay." 

But  even  this  ascetic  and  godly  priest  thought  that  the 
Crown  Prince's  fate  called  rather  for  sympathy  than  con- 
demnation, especially  as  he  finally  paid  for  his  mistakes  with 
man's  most  treasured  possession,  life. 

Sentiments  like  these,  based  on  the  lofty  principles  of 
"  In  omnibus  charitas,"  are  to  many  more  appropriate  than 
those  expressed  in  the  following  melancholy  English  poem 

io8 


Memories  of  the  Crown  Prince  Rudolph 

which   appealed   to   Mrs.    de   la   Touffe-Laudcr,  who   drew 
my  attention  to  it  in  this  connection  : 

"  Sleep,  my  Beloved,  sleep  ! 
Be  patient ! — we  shall  keep 
Our  secret  closely  hid 
Beneath  the  coffin-lid, — 
There  is  no  other  place  in  earth  or  air 
For  such  a  love  as  ours,  or  such  despair  ! 
And  neither  hell  nor  heaven  shall  care  to  win 
Our  loathed  souls,  rejoicing  in  their  sin  I " 


fl)9 


CHAPTER  V 
FRANCIS  FERDINAND 

WHEN  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  was  robbed  of  his 
only  son  hy  the  Mayerling  tragedy  on  January  30, 
1889,  his  next  brother,  the  Archduke  Charles  Louis,  became 
heir  to  the  throne.  He  was  in  his  fifty-sixth  year,  having 
been  born  on  July  30,  1833. 

In  view  of  the  slight  difference  in  age  between  the  Arch- 
duke and  the  Emperor  all  eyes  were  inevitably  fixed  on  Charles 
Louis'  eldest  son,  the  Archduke  Francis  Ferdinand,  then 
aged  twenty-six.  It  was  known,  too,  that  the  Archduke 
Charles  Louis  had  always  preferred  a  retired  life  to  the 
public  gaze  and  it  could  properly  be  assumed  that  the  crown 
was  no  inducement  and  indeed  had  no  particular  attraction 
for  him. 

With  the  death  of  Charles  Louis  on  May  19,  1896,  the 
Archduke  Francis  Ferdinand,  in  his  thirty-third  year,  be- 
came the  direct  heir.  He  had  thus  crossed  the  threshold 
of  maturity,  that  stage  of  a  man's  life  at  which  the  stamp  of 
responsibility  and  resolution  is  set  upon  him.  In  neither 
quality  was  the  i\rchduke  deficient. 

It  was  just  before  this  that  my  chance  came  of  making 
his  personal  acquaintance.  In  June,  1895, 1  was  unexpectedly 
appointed  General  Staff  Officer  of  the  38th  Infantry  Brigade 
which  was  then  at  Budweis  in  Bohemia  under  the  command 
of  the  Archduke.  Our  direct  co-operation  was  not  destined 
to  be  of  long  duration,  however,  for  within  a  few  months 
the  Prince  had  lung  trouble  and  was  compelled  to  go  south 

no 


Francis  Ferdinand 

for  a  considerable  time.  Our  paths  did  not  cross  again 
until  five  years  later  when  I  was  serving  in  the  Emperor's 
military  cabinet. 

Yet  the  time  at  Budweis  gave  me  plenty  of  opportunity 
to  obtain  a  pretty  good  idea  of  the  character  of  the  Archduke 
Francis  Ferdinand,  not  only  during  our  close  but  not  entirely 
continuous  official  dealings,  but  also  in  the  course  of  conver- 
sations I  had  with  him  when  I  was  a  guest  at  his  table  or  we 
went  for  short  drives  or  walks  together. 

On  our  drives  he  always  took  the  reins  himself.  He  was 
extremely  fond  of  sitting  on  the  box  and  was  a  particularly 
expert  driver.  On  the  other  hand,  and  quite  unlike  his 
uncle,  he  was  only  a  very  moderate  horseman,  and  not- 
withstanding all  the  years  he  had  spent  in  the  cavalry  he  was 
not  fond  of  riding.  To  be  honest,  he  rode  no  more  than  was 
absolutely  necessary. 

Francis  Ferdinand  was  serious-minded,  but  none  the 
less  extraordinarily  courteous.  He  had  a  high  notion  of 
his  great  position  and  expressed  it  even  in  his  outward  ap- 
pearance, for  he  was  always  particularly  well-groomed  and 
smart,  whether  in  uniform,  civilian  or  sporting  clothes. 

Like  the  Emperor  he  was  essentially  the  aristocrat  in  his 
speech.  He  chose  his  words  carefully  and  well  and  always 
did  his  best  to  avoid  impulsive  remarks.  Yet  he  could  not 
entirely  control  his  nerves,  so  that  outbursts  of  anger  were 
not  altogether  a  rarity  with  him.  He  quickly  discovered 
mistakes  and  failures  and  would  often  censure  the  offenders 
publicly  in  language  little  short  of  harsh.  Nor  did  he  shrink 
from  making  examples.  If  an  individual  incurred  his  dis- 
pleasure he  had  nothing  good  to  expect  from  the  Archduke. 
His  judgment  on  those  with  whom  he  came  in  contact  was 
sharp  and  on  the  intolerant  side.  His  favour  had  always 
to  be  won  first.  It  was  never  granted  indiscriminately. 
Yet  that  did  not  make  him  a  really  sound  judge  of  men, 
because  he  was  only  too  easily  led  by  personal  sympathies 

III 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

and  antipathies.     Nor  was  he  free  from  a  prejudice  in  favour 
of  aristocracy. 

He  had  certainly  worked  harder  in  his  youth  than  his 
younger  brothers,  the  Archdukes  Otto  and  Ferdinand  Charles, 
but  unfortunately  he  had  had  no  systematic  and  thorough 
training.  In  the  imperial  family  no  one  had  the  slightest 
idea  of  making  the  young  princes  pass  through  an  intensive 
course  of  education.  It  was  quite  enough  for  them  to  acquire 
a  smattering  of  ad  usum  delphini  general  knowledge  which 
to  a  certain  extent  fitted  them  to  enter  upon  that  military 
career  which  was  considered  the  only  path  to  salvation. 
The  system  had  been  applied  to  Francis  Ferdinand  also.  He 
soon  discovered  the  many  lacuncB  in  his  knowledge  and  en- 
deavoured to  fill  up  the  gaps  by  self -instruction.  He  displayed 
no  little  energy  in  carrying  out  this  self-imposed  task  and  a 
considerable  measure  of  success  attended  his  efforts. 

As  heir  to  the  last  Duke  of  Modena,  Francis  V.,  who  died 
on  November  20,  1875  and  bequeathed  his  style  and  title 
"  of  Austria-Este  "  to  Francis  Ferdinand,  the  latter  found 
himself  possessed  of  an  immense  fortune  in  his  early  youth. 
In  later  years  he  managed  his  property  and  affairs  with 
much  care  and  caution.  He  used  his  great  wealth  partly 
in  building  superb  residences,  and  partly  in  the  purchase  of 
art  treasures  for  which,  thanks  to  enthusiasm  and  long  practice, 
he  had  a  good  and  well-trained  eye.  He  was  a  keen,  but  not 
always  lucky,  collector  of  antiquities  and  was  always  trying 
to  excel  as  a  judge  of  such  objects. 

In  addition  to  this  "  craze  "  (for  no  other  word  can  be 
applied  to  his  passion  for  art  treasures),  he  had  another — 
hunting.  Of  course  it  was  not  hunting  in  the  lofty  sense 
observed  by  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph,  who  always  remained 
the  chevalier  sans  peur  et  sans  reproche,  even  when  hunting 
or  shooting. 

His  knowledge  of  military  matters  was  good.  He  was 
deeply  interested  in  the  army  and  had  a  real  affection  for  his 

112 


Francis  Ferdinand 

men.  The  best  proof  was  his  farewell  order  to  the  38th 
Infantry  Brigade  which  he  drew  up  and  wrote  himself. 
It  was  much  more  eloquent  of  his  thoughts  and  feelings  on  the 
subject  than  any  long-winded  speech. 

One  incident,  which  I  have  selected  from  a  crowd  of 
others,  will  set  at  rest  any  doubt  as  to  this  characteristic  ot 
the  Archduke. 

One  fine  Sunday  in  June,  1895,  a  Sunday  on  which  Francis 
Ferdinand  was  out  of  Budweis,  a  lance-corporal  of  the  nth 
Infantry  Regiment  (one  of  the  units  composing  the  38th 
Infantry  Brigade)  who  had  died  in  hospital  was  borne  to  the 
grave.  It  so  happened  that  the  regimental  band  had  been 
engaged  that  very  day  tor  some  festivity  in  the  neighbourhood, 
so  that  there  was  no  music  at  the  funeral  as  the  regulations 
decreed.  The  dead  man's  relatives  not  unnaturally  regarded 
the  omission — ^which  was  due  solely  to  this  unofficial  engage- 
ment of  the  regimental  band — as  a  slight.  The  mattei  came 
to  Francis  Ferdinand's  knowledge.  Leaving  his  work,  he 
immediately  went  to  the  barracks  of  the  nth  Infantry 
Regiment,  had  the  band  assembled  in  the  yard  and  ordered 
the  bandmaster  to  pick  out  a  "  Harmonie."* 

He  put  the  "  Harmonie  "  in  one  corner  of  the  yard  and 
the  rest  of  the  regimental  band  in  the  other.  The  latter 
he  ordered  to  strike  up  some  dance  tunes  while  the  "  Har- 
monie "  played  a  funeral  march.  The  tunes  went  together 
excellently.  All  of  them  were  played  quite  faultlessly.  The 
Archduke  now  turned  angrily  to  the  commanding  officer  : 

"  That's  what  you  ought  to  have  done  !  You  let  the 
poor  corporal  go  to  his  last  rest  without  music  just  to  have 
a  few  extra  bandsmen  at  a  peasants'  dance.  It's  a  downright 
shame  !  " 

It  was  not  long  before  the  officer  had  to  pay  for  his  un- 
feeling   behaviour  with  the  resignation  of  his  commission. 

•  A  few  men  forming  a  small  band. 

113  S 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

Francis  Ferdinand  took  a  strong  view  of  his  action,  which 
seemed  to  him  pure  heartlessness. 

The  Archduke  was  invariably  true  to  his  feelings  of  warm 
regard  and  interest  for  his  officers  and  men.  They  realized 
its  value  to  them  in  unsuspected  ways  during  the  period  in 
which  General  von  Conrad-Hotzendorf  was  Chief  of  the 
General  Staff  and  made  unprecedented  demands  on  the 
troops,  demands  almost  exceeding  the  limits  of  their  physical 
capacity.  They  found  Francis  Ferdinand  a  never-failing 
stand-by.  He  simply  would  not  allow  the  strength  of  the 
men  and  horses  to  be  recklessly  dissipated  purely  for  the  sake 
of  manoeuvres. 

The  Archduke  would  also  have  none  of  that  contempt  for 
any  sort  of  formality  in  military  training  which  Conrad  in- 
troduced. With  the  sound  judgment  and  wealth  of  ex- 
perience which  the  Chief  of  the  General  Staff  did  not  possess, 
he  knew  that  drill  and  discipline  are  in  many  ways  absolutely 
inseparable  and  that  in  war  a  well-drilled  unit  will  do  its 
duty  automatically.  It  was  with  this  idea  that  he  re-intro- 
duced the  complicated  and  difficult  exercise,  "  Present  Arms," 
which  had  been  abolished  in  1889. 

In  contrast  to  the  Emperor  who  knew  little  about  naval 
affairs  and  had  no  particular  feeling  for  the  fleet,  Francis 
Ferdinand  attached  great  importance  to  the  navy  and  devoted 
special  attention  to  it.  As  public  proof  of  his  interest  he 
often  wore  naval  uniform.  The  Emperor  never  did.  Francis 
Ferdinand  once  asked  his  uncle  in  my  presence  at  Ischl 
why  he  never  gave  his  naval  officers  the  pleasure  of  seeing 
him  in  their  smart  uniform.     Said  the  Emperor  with  a  smile  : 

"  In  the  first  place,  I've  never  been  given  any  rank  in  the 
navy.  Who  is  there  who  could  have  given  me  one  in  my 
time  ?     Perhaps  the  Dane,  Dahlerup.*     Secondly,  I'm  not 

*  Hans  Bisch,  Baron  von  Dahlerup,  Commodore  in  the  Royal  Danish  Navy,  was 
invited  to  Austria  in  1849  to  reorganize  the  navy.  He  was  created  an  admiral  straight 
o£F,  in  which  capacity  he  commanded  the  Austrian  fleet  for  a  few  years. 

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Francis  Ferdinand 

even  capable  of  managing  one  of  my  grandson's  paper  boats 
in  the  fountain  here.  How  on  earth  could  I  dress  up  as  an 
admiral  ?  " 

Francis  Ferdinand  took  the  greatest  possible  interest 
in  politics,  read  everything  in  the  way  of  memoranda  he 
could  get  hold  of  and  always  listened  most  attentively  at 
conferences.  I  have  never  come  to  any  final  opinion  as 
to  whether  he  thereby  acquired  a  really  sound  judgment, 
for  here  again  prejudices  and  gusts  of  feeling  played  too 
great  a  part  for  his  views  to  be  always  clear.  Yet  all  would 
admit  that  he  took  endless  pains  to  get  to  the  bottom  of 
all  questions  submitted  for  his  consideration. 

As  regards  foreign  politics  he  was  definitely  pro-Russian 
in  his  Budweis  days.  He  regarded  a  close  association  with 
the  Czar's  empire  as  the  way  of  salvation  for  the  future 
development  of  the  Danube  Monarchy,  and  cherished  the 
greatest  hopes  that  through  his  personal  efforts  the  young 
Czar  Nicholas  H.,  who  at  that  time  had  not  been  long  on 
the  throne  and  was  a  clean  slate,  so  to  speak,  would  become 
a  real  friend  of  Austria-Hungary.  This  ambition  was  con- 
firmed by  the  fact  that  the  autocratic  Russian  system  was 
in  his  eyes  an  admirable  model.  At  bottom  Francis  Fer- 
dinand was  not  merely  autocratic  by  temperament ;  in 
his  view  it  was  essential,  having  regard  to  the  complicated 
structure  and  heterogeneous  elements  of  the  Danube 
Monarchy,  that  its  affairs  should  be  directed  from  above 
with  a  strong  hand.  The  result  was  that  more  than  once 
he  did  not  hesitate  to  brand  political  decisions  of  the  Em- 
peror as  expressions  of  weakness,  though  the  decisions  in 
question  were  the  fruit  of  the  old  sovereign's  ripe  experience 
and  undoubtedly  based  on  grounds  of  expediency. 

Later  on  Francis  Ferdinand  found  himself  bitterly  dis- 
appointed in  Nicholas  H.  and  wasted  no  time  in  turning 
to  William  H.  and  King  Charles  I.  of  Rumania.  In  con- 
sidering his  abrupt  change  of  front  to  the  "  German  "  side 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

it   must   be  remembered  that  purely  personal  factors   also 
played  a  great  part,  as  so  often  with  him. 

He  had  always  had  a  not  unfavourable  opinion  of  Italy 
and  never  ceased  in  his  honest  endeavours  to  cultivate  and 
gradually  strengthen  the  best  of  relations  with  this  south- 
western neighbour.  There  is  no  doubt  that  he  proved  it 
in  action  as  well  as  words.  It  is  only  necessary  to  recall 
the  fact  that  Francis  V.  of  Modena  closed  his  eyes  in  the 
unshakable  conviction  that  the  Hapsburgs  would  one  day 
recover  the  duchy  from  which  he  had  had  to  flee  in  1859. 
The  clearest  proof  is  his  will  which  contemplated  the  main- 
tenance of  the  Este  court  which,  even  though  in  temporary 
exile,  should  always  have  the  closest  moral  and  practical 
relations  with  the  defunct  state  of  Modena.  Francis  Fer- 
dinand, on  the  other  hand,  once  he  had  attained  full  age 
recognized  existing  facts  without  any  kind  of  mental  reser- 
vation. He  had  not  the  slightest  idea  of  adopting 
Francis  V.'s  point  of  view.  In  his  eyes  the  unity  of  the 
Italian  kingdom  was  a  fait  accompli  and  all  he  desired  was 
to  be  able  to  regard  Italy  as  a  firm  ally  of  the  Austro- 
Hungarian  monarchy. 

Thus,  with  a  view  to  avoiding  friction,  he  never  wore 
the  insignia  of  the  Italian  Order  of  Nobility,  of  which  he 
was  the  Grand  Master,  in  accordance  with  the  last  will  of 
Francis  V.  The  Italians  might  have  been  offended.  Francis 
Ferdinand  regarded  his  Modena  inheritance  virtually  as 
private  property  and  he  intended  to  keep  all  political 
elements  entirely  out  of  it.  Was  it  not  he  who  opposed 
the  strongest  resistance  to  the  plans  of  General  Conrad 
von  Hotzendorf  in  1907  when  the  latter  was  proposing 
to  start  his  well-known  "  preventive  war  ?  "  No  one  knew 
it  better  than  I,  for  I  learned  it  from  the  Archduke's  own 
lips.  He  told  me  himself  that  he  would  never  give  his  con- 
sent to  such  a  policy  of  brigandage. 

Quite  otherwise  was  Francis  Ferdinand's  attitude  towards 

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Francis  Ferdinand 

France,  in  which  he  saw  the  principal  agent  of  that  decline 
of  Austria  which  had  begun  to  be  revealed  even  as  early 
as  the  opening  of  his  uncle's  reign.  He  never  made  the 
slightest  secret  of  his  aversion  to  the  French,  and  it  is  there- 
forp  somewhat  remarkable  that  the  French  themselves, 
knowing  his  opinion  of  them,  took  no  small  interest  in  his 
doings.  They  soon  became  rather  apprehensive  and  kept 
a  close  eye  on  him.  That  this  was  not  entirely  due  to 
pique  or  fear,  but  had  elements  of  admiration  or  respect, 
is  clearly  proved  by  the  phrase  :  "II  sera  le  Louis  XI.  de 
I'Autriche  !  "  which  a  Frenchman  once  used.  It  embodies 
no  slight  compliment  to  the  Archduke. 

His  sympathies  with  Great  Britain  were  deep  and  genuine. 
He  was  impressed  by  English  life  and  habits  and  in  many 
respects  the  Anglo-Saxons,  with  their  positivism,  energy 
and  respect  for  law  and  order,  had  natural  affinities  with 
the  serious  and  self-contained  character  of  the  Archduke. 
In  the  Budweis  days  it  was  even  said  that  he  was  cherishing 
the  vain  idea  of  marrying  Princess  Mary,  the  eldest  daughter 
of  the  then  Prince  of  Wales.  One  day  an  autograph  letter 
arrived  from  Sandringham  for  him  and  I  took  the  liberty 
of  asking  him  whether  we  had  any  ground  for  hoping  for  his 
union  with  Queen  Victoria's  grand-daughter.  The  Arch- 
duke evaded  the  question.  His  answer  was  neither  yes  nor 
no.     All  he  said  was : 

"  It  would  certainly  be  high  time,  if  there  was  any  idea 
of  once  more  increasing  the  prestige  of  the  Imperial  House 
by  suitable  marriages  and  thus  rendering  the  Monarchy  a 
service.  But  such  a  marriage — even  if  possible,  which  I 
do  not  and  cannot  know — is  a  matter  of  such  uncertainty 
that  it's  better  not  to  think  about  it." 

He  lapsed  into  his  serious  mood  and  a  deep  wrinkle  ap- 
peared between  his  eyebrows.  He  continued  in  earnest 
tones  : 

"  But  for  your  own  instruction  it's  worth  knowing  that 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

in  life  things  always  turn  out  differently,  quite  differently, 
from  what  one  thinks  or  wishes.     Don't  forget  it !  " 

His  views  on  the  question  of  domestic  politics  in  the 
Danube  Monarchy  culminated  in  the  unshakable  conviction 
that  unless  fundamental  changes  were  made  the  Empire  was 
doomed  to  destruction  on  the  rock  of  Hungary.  He  there- 
fore hated  Hungary  with  a  blind  animosity  bordering  on  sheer 
obduracy.  He  was  always  thinking  of  possible  ways  of  break- 
ing her  political  power  in  future  and  establishing  the  state  on 
a  totally  new  basis  when  he  began  his  reign.  He  contem- 
plated nothing  less  than  a  federation  of  "  small,"  independent 
fractions  which  should  each  enjoy  the  widest  measure  of 
autonomy  in  every  respect  and  yet  be  firmly  held  together 
by  the  bond  of  an  extremely  strong  central  government  and 
a  single  army.  I  need  hardly  say  that  the  official  tongue 
of  this  Empire  would  be  German,  and  its  representation 
abroad  would  also  have  to  be  uniform.  The  model  which  he 
had  in  mind  was  the  constitution  of  the  North  American 
Union.  He  saw  a  striking  resemblance  between  it  and 
Austria-Hungary  as  he  insisted  that  the  United  States  also 
was  not  nationally  homogeneous. 

Personally  these  plans  struck  me  as  somewhat  too  academic, 
and  I  remember  shaking  my  head,  involuntarily,  when  the 
Archduke  was  once  discussing  them.  It  was  one  evening 
in  that  rainy  July  of  1895  in  which  I  was  often  the  Arch- 
duke's guest  at  dinner.  I  gave  an  account  of  the  conversa- 
tion on  this  occasion  in  a  letter  I  wrote  to  my  father  the  next 
day.  It  is  lying  before  me  now  and  I  can  thus  give  exactly 
what  was  said. 

Quite  excited  at  my  dumb  expression  of  doubt,  the  Arch- 
duke exclaimed  : 

"  Do  you  mean  to  say  it  would  not  be  possible  to  intro- 
duce that  system  over  here  ?  " 

"  Certainly  not  by  legislation  alone,"  I  ventured  to 
object. 

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Francis  Ferdinand 

"  Then  by  force  !  "  replied  Francis  Ferdinand  in  gloomy- 
tones. 

"  Taking  isn't  stealing,"  I  remarked  with  a  laugh,  hoping 
to  give  the  conversation  a  lighter  turn,  as  I  realized  that  it 
was  beginning  to  run  on  dangerous  lines.  But  I  thought 
it  necessary  to  add  :  "  It  seems  to  me  that  the  foundation 
for  an  analogy  with  the  North  American  Union  is  lacking 
in  our  case.  When  the  United  States  became  an  entity  in 
the  second  half  of  the  eighteenth  century  it  is  quite  true  that 
it  had  no  history  and  no  settled  frontiers.  But  Washington 
and  his  colleagues  had  one  fundamental  element  at  their 
disposal  for  their  creative  work — an  element  which  later 
formed  a  foundation  and  unifying  principle  for  all  that 
followed.  I  mean  Anglo-Saxon  civilization,  which  was  not 
merely  predominant  but  universally  recognized  as  such 
throughout  North  America.  We  have  nothing  of  the  kind 
here." 

The  Archduke  objected  :  "  What  about  the  Germans 
among  us  ?  " 

I  realized  at  once  that  he  himself  was  doubting  the  force 
of  his  argument  so  L  casually  answered  : 

"  Before  1866  our  Germans  failed  to  prove  themselves 
the  dominating  and  unifying  element  in  the  Monarchy, 
even  though  they  had  the  strong  backing  of  a  virtually  abso- 
lute government  and  still  possessed  a  large  number  of  trumps 
they  have  long  since  played.  Now  that  the  Monarchy  is 
divided  into  two  parts,  in  one  of  which  they  have  ceased  to 
count  for  practically  thirty  years  and  in  the  other  were  sys- 
tematically thrust  to  the  wall  throughout  the  Taaffe  era, 
how  could  they  possibly  undertake  so  formidable  a  task 
with  any  prospect  of  success  ?  It  seems  to  me  simply  un- 
thinkable." 

For  the  moment  the  Archduke,  who  was  obviously  not 
too  well  pleased,  could  find  nothing  more  to  say  but  at  dinner 
he  returned  to  the  subject  and  explained  in  detail  how  a 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

transformed  Austria-Hungary  would  have  to  be  formed  out 
of  a  number  of  "  small  "  state  units  of  more  or  less  the  same 
area  and  population. 

"  When  you  want  to  get  concrete  that  will  stand  anything 
and  last  for  ever  you  have  to  break  up  the  larger  stones  so 
that  the  cement  in  the  mass  may,  so  to  speak,  weld  them  all 
together.  It's  the  same  with  a  federal  state.  The  elements 
must  be  equal  and  similar  if  the  permanence  of  the  whole  is 
to  be  secured  by  the  unity  of  the  parts  and  antagonisms  are 
to  be  avoided.  I  should  like  to  divide  the  present  Hungary 
into  four  or  five  such  elements — Bohemia  into  two  and 
Galicia  into  two  likewise.  If  that  was  done  the  Germans 
in  Hungary  and  Bohemia  could  develop  as  they  have  done 
in  their  own  native  Austria.  In  that  way  men  would  come 
to  regard  the  German  language,  which  was  originally  imposed 
on  the  whole  Empire  by  law  on  grounds  of  expediency,  as 
something  quite  natural  and  indeed  a  logical  necessity. 

"  I  am  absolutely  convinced  that  the  disproportionate 
development  of  one  part  of  a  complex  political  body  such  as 
the  Monarchy  in  its  present  form  can  only  be  at  the  expense 
of  the  other  members.  It's  just  like  a  pathological  condition 
in  the  human  body.  If  it  isn't  remedied  medicinally,  and  if 
need  be,  surgically,  in  time  it  infallibly  brings  disease  and 
death.  In  the  same  way  nothing  can  stay  the  approach  of 
disaster  to  a  political  body  like  the  Hapsburg  Monarchy  of 
which  one  member — Hungary — is  always  suffering  from 
hypertrophical  enlargement.  There's  no  possible  doubt 
about  that. 

"  In  my  view  I'm  justified  in  going  so  far  as  to  say  that 
the  hypertrophy  of  Prussia  is  a  misfortune  even  in  the  German 
Empire  which  is  nationally  homogeneous  and  from  the 
purely  political  point  of  view  represents  a  combination  of 
states  on  the  basis  of  a  historic  past.  In  reality  that  hyper- 
trophy only  enfeebles  the  whole  organism  and  turns  its  vital 
force  into  false  tracks.     One  fine  day  this  pathological  con- 

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Francis  Ferdinand 

dition  will  be  revealed  by  some  terrible  catastrophe — all  the 
more  terrible  because  the  disaster  might  very  well  come 
quite  unexpectedly  so  that  its  consequences  would  be  inevit- 
able and  highly  destructive." 

I  listened  in  amazement  to  these  remarks  which  sounded 
so  new  and  strange  to  me,  particularly  the  reference  to 
Germany  which  struck  me  as  somewhat  absurd.  Hitherto, 
people  were  never  tired  of  telling  me  that  the  greatness  of 
Germany  was  more  than  anything  else  due  to  the  firm  leading 
and  predominance  of  Prussia — the  very  circumstance  Francis 
Ferdinand  described  as  a  "  pathological  condition  !  "  Yet 
History  has  ultimately  proved  him  right  on  this  point,  as 
on  so  many  others ! 

The  Archduke  continued  this  truly  ominous  conversation 
even  after  dinner  and  approximately  outlined  the  frontiers 
he  had  in  mind  for  the  individual  states  of  the  Hapsburg 
federation.  In  these  sad  days  I  often  think  of  one  remark- 
able detail  of  his  description.  The  frontiers  which  Francis 
Ferdinand  assigned  to  Hungary  in  his  federation  were  far 
more  extensive  than  those  she  has  just  received  at  Neuilly  ! 

When  the  Archduke  returned  to  this  topic,  as  he  did  several 
times  subsequently,  he  expressed  another  opinion  which 
filled  me  with  no  less  amazement.  He  was  firmly  convinced 
that  the  ascendancy  of  Prussia  was  a  danger  not  only  for 
the  future  of  Germany  but  for  that  of  Austria-Hungary  also. 
He  based  this  view  on  the  fact  that,  though  Germany  un- 
doubtedly owed  her  greatness  to  Prussia,  the  latter  had 
made  that  greatness  a  subject  of  growing  uneasiness  to  all 
her  neighbours.  Francis  Ferdinand  maintained  that  this 
was  due  to  peculiarities  of  the  Prussian  character.  He  thought 
Austrian  hegemony  would  have  been  a  far  sounder  guarantee 
for  the  progressive  and  safe  development  of  Germany.  The 
fact  that  the  Austrian  statesmen  of  his  day  had  allowed  the 
leadership  of  Germany  to  be  wrested  from  them  he  regarded 
as  one  of  the  greatest  misfortunes  that  could  have  overtaken 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

the  two  states.  He  considered  that  the  Chancellor,  Prince 
Clemens  Metternich,  bore  the  largest  share  of  responsibility 
for  this  development. 

"  He  sacrificed  Austria,  and  therefore  Germany,  on  August 
II,  1 813,"  Francis  Ferdinand  often  said,  "  when  he  declared 
war  on  Napoleon  I.,  as  Austria  had  the  destinies  of  Europe 
in  her  hand.  In  so  doing  she  pulled  Prussia's  chestnuts 
out  of  the  fire  for  her  and  twisted  the  rope  round  her  own 
neck  !  " 

He  always  maintained  that  if  Austria  had  taken  the  side 
of  Napoleon  I.  on  that  occasion,  the  hegemony  of  Germany 
could  never  have  passed  out  of  Hapsburg  hands, 

The  Archduke's  opinion  of  the  Emperor  Napoleon  was 
quite  his  own.  That  he  admired  him  without  stint  as  a 
great  soldier  will  excite  no  surprise,  but  he  went  further  and 
heatedly  rejected  the  view  that  he  was  in  any  way  a  usurper. 

"  There  was  never  a  more  legitimate  sovereign  than  he  !  " 
the  Archduke  once  remarked.  "  Didn't  the  Senate  unani- 
mously offer  him  the  crown  ?  Didn't  the  subsequent  appeal 
to  the  people  result  in  a  huge  majority  for  him  ?  Wasn't 
he  anointed  by  the  Pope  himself  ?  What  monarch  could 
have  a  better  right  to  claim  that  he  owed  his  throne  *  to 
the  grace  of  God  and  the  will  of  the  nation  ?  '  "   . 

He  continued  to  enlarge  on  the  fact  that  hardly  anyone 
has  ascended  a  throne  with  a  greater  right  than  Napoleon 
for  by  his  own  efforts  he  had  restored  political  order,  religion 
and  stable  social  conditions — in  a  word  laid  the  foundations 
of  mighty  modern  France.  All  the  great  founders  of  states 
or  dynasties  had  used  more  or  less  reprehensible  methods. 
In  many  cases  they  had  not  shrunk  from  civil  war  and  crime. 
Very  different  was  Napoleon's  elevation  to  the  throne. 
"  Je  n'ai  point  usurpe  la  couronne,  je  I'ai  trouvee  dans  le 
ruisseau  ;  le  peuple  I'a  mise  sur  ma  tete ;  qu'on  respecte 
ses  actes  !  " 

Such  a  view  of  legitimacy,  remarkably  liberal  for  an  heir 

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Francis  Ferdinand 

to  the  Austro-Hungarian  throne,  may  well  have  roused  a 
suspicion  among  many  who  heard  similar  expressions  used 
by  Francis  Ferdinand  that  he  attached  no  particular  im- 
portance to  the  unconditional  preservation  of  the  old  dynasty. 

How  could  an  heir  harbouring  such  views  breathe  the 
same  mental  atmosphere  as  the  Emperor  who  stood  by 
existing  institutions  for  weal  or  woe  ?  How  could  the 
Emperor  and  Francis  Ferdinand  possibly  work  together  ? 
It  was  an  absolute  impossibility.  Such  far-reaching  diver- 
gences of  opinion  on  fundamental  questions  were  bound  to 
keep  the  two  men  apart  from  the  start,  whether  they  were 
called  to  work  together  or  not. 

Of  course  as  the  years  went  by  and  brought  a  wealth 
of  experience  with  them  more  and  more  water  was  poured 
into  the  wine  of  his  future  political  plans.  He  adopted 
"  Trialism  "  and  ended  up — according  to  post-mortem  re- 
port— with  nothing  less  than  a  conversion  to  "  Dualism." 
But  whether  that  be  so  or  not,  I  do  not  think  he  ever  entirely 
and  irrevocably  abandoned  his  original  idea. 

Towards  the  end  of  April,  191 3,  the  draft  of  a  letter  which 
the  Archduke  had  addressed  to  Count  Scapinelli,  then  Papal 
Nuncio  in  Vienna,  came  casually  into  my  hands.  It  was 
perfectly  clear  from  this  document  how  firm  was  Francis 
Ferdinand's  resolve  to  preserve  and  protect  the  autonomous 
rights  of  the  different  nationalities  in  the  Monarchy — even 
Hungary.  The  subject  of  the  letter  was  the  nomination  to 
the  newly-established  unified-Greek  bishopric  of  Hajdudorog 
near  Debreczin.  This  bishopric  was  intended  for  the  Ru- 
manians living  in  that  region,  as  might  be  expected  in  view 
of  the  creed  concerned,  and  the  Archduke  therefore  used  all 
his  influence  to  secure  that  the  bishop's  chair  should  be 
occupied  by  a  member  of  the  higher  clergy  of  Rumanian 
nationality. 

The  Hungarian  Government,  on  the  other  hand,  wanted 
to  see  a  Magyar  appointed  bishop  of  Hajdudorog  for  political 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

reasons,  as  through  their  nominee  they  could  put  pressure 
on  the  inhabitants  to  the  advantage  of  Hungary  and  cen- 
tralism while  he  himself  acted  as  their  instrument  for  the 
magyarization  of  the  province.  The  Hungarian  Minister 
of  Public  Worship,  through  the  Emperor,  had  a  Hungarian 
canon  recommended  in  Rome  for  the  see  of  Hajdudorog, 
and  the  Curia,  which  always  did  its  utmost  to  meet  the 
wishes  of  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  government, 
especially  in  the  days  of  Pope  Pius  X.,  immediately  confirmed 
the  Hungarian  candidate  for  the  new  diocese. 

The  Archduke  Ferdinand  was  simply  furious.  Even  at 
the  eleventh  hour  he  intervened  personally  and  tried  to 
impose  his  view  that  a  prelate  of  Rumanian  nationality  was 
alone  suitable  for  Hajdudorog.  Hence  the  letter  of  which  I 
am  speaking.  His  language  to  the  Papal  Nuncio  was  quite 
unusually  sharp  : 

"  No  one  will  question  that  I  am  a  good  son  of  the  Church 
of  Rome,  but  where  it  is  a  question  of  preserving  the  ele- 
mentary rights  of  the  nations  over  whom  I  may  be  called  to 
rule,  if  God  so  wills,  I  recognize  no  considerations  of  ex- 
pediency and  would  not  shrink  from  breaking  off  relations 
even  with  the  Holy  Father  if  he  used  his  powers  in  a  direction 
diametrically  opposed  to  my  own  views — views  which  are 
animated  solely  by  thought  for  the  welfare  of  my  future 
subjects." 

In  the  case  in  point  Francis  Ferdinand  did  not  get  his 
own  way,  but  the  incident  is  eloquent  proof  that  an  up-to- 
date  solution  of  the  problem  of  the  nationalities  in  conformity 
with  the  needs  of  the  time  was  always  very  much  on  his  mind. 

In  the  following  autumn  (191 3),  in  the  course  of  a  long 
conversation  I  had  with  him  at  Ischl,  he  asked  me  whether 
I  had  ever  given  any  further  thought  to  the  regeneration 
of  the  Monarchy  since  the  Budweis  days.  I  replied  in  the 
affirmative.     He  laughed. 

"  So  have  I.     I've  read  and  heard  much,  much  too  much 

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about  it  since  then.  But  I'm  not  a  penny  the  wiser.  It's 
the  sort  of  problem  that's  always  bobbing  up  and  seems 
insoluble.  I'm  sorry  to  say  your  old  doubts  have  begun  to 
infect  me  too  !  " 

After  reflection  he  continued  in  a  tone  of  resignation  : 

"  I  can't  resist  a  feeling  that  1866  was  a  fatality  as  much 
for  Germany  as  for  us.  Prussia,  in  her  selfish  hunger  for 
power,  sawed  off  the  branch  on  which  we  sat.  That  action 
spelled  the  doom  of  the  Hohenzollerns  also.  Austria  was 
aiming  at  establishing  an  ascendancy  in  Germany  on  a  federal 
basis,  or  rather  she  only  wished  to  be  primus  inter  fares. 
Prussia  insists  on  being  feared  and  obeyed  and  has  always 
to  give  ocular  proofs  of  her  power  and  superiority  to  main- 
tain her  authority  over  the  members  of  the  federation.  The 
appeal  to  arms  in  that  year  resulted  in  a  decision  against  us. 
That  was  a  misfortune  the  fatal  effects  of  which  will  be 
fully  appreciated  only  in  the  future. 

"  The  federal  constitution  which  we  should  have  intro- 
duced for  Germany  would  obviously  have  been  extended  to 
the  Monarchy  itself.  The  federal  principle,  whose  repre- 
sentative we  should  have  been  in  Germany,  would  have  had 
to  be  adopted  at  home,  if  only  for  the  sake  of  logic.  It 
couldn't  have  been  otherwise.  Thus  Austria,  her  vigour 
renewed,  would  have  entered  upon  new  and  auspicious  paths. 
I  stand  or  fall  by  a  Hapsburg  federal  empire.  Dualism  is 
madness,  a  makeshift,  an  anomaly  !  " 

He  shook  his  head  and  added  : 

*'  It  would  mean  that  the  Slav  problem  would  solve 
itself.  The  Czechs  would  be  separated  from  the  Germans  of 
Bohemia  and  enjoy  autonomy.  So  would  the  Croats,  the 
Slovenes  and  the  Hungarian  Serbs.  Then  all  these  peoples 
would  exercise  so  strong  an  attraction — by  their  very  mass — 
on  the  Serbs  of  the  Kingdom  that  the  latter  would  seek 
national  unity  within  the  Monarchy,  i.e.,  in  a  centripetal 
sense,  and  not  in  a  centrifugal  sense  by  the  incorporation  of 

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our  South  Slavs  with  the  Serbs  of  the  Kingdom.  And  that 
even  though  our  South  Slavs  are  far  superior  to  the  Serbs  and 
Montenegrins  from  the  point  of  view  of  culture." 

I  remarked  on  the  religious  differences  between  Slovenes 
and  Croats  on  one  side  and  the  Serbs  on  the  other.  Francis 
Ferdinand  smiled. 

"  Of  course.     The  Catholics  must  certainly  have  priority." 

In  those  words  the  Archduke  himself  exposed  the  Achilles 
heel  of  his  capacity  to  unravel  this  problem.  In  191 3  a 
Hapsburg  solution  was  further  away  than  ever  as  the  result 
of  Serbia's  gains  in  territory  and  influence  in  the  Balkan 
Wars.  Yet  Francis  Ferdinand  possessed  both  the  will  and  the 
courage  to  grapple  with  the  problem.  That  alone  meant  a 
good  deal.  Nor  was  his  design  without  prospects  of  ultimate 
success.  No  wonder  that  the  Slav  world  had  its  eyes  closely 
fixed  upon  him,  approving  or  disapproving  as  party  feeling 
dictated. 

The  Archduke's  closing  words  were  interesting  : 
"  The  Emperor  has  been  bitterly  reproached  on  all  sides 
for  sacrificing  Lombardy  in  1859  rather  than  accept  Ger- 
many's help  after  Solferino  at  the  price  of  allowing  Prussia  to 
take  over  the  headship.  It  was  nobility  of  mind,  I  tell  you. 
The  Emperor  had  no  intention  of  handing  Germany  over  to 
Prussia.  He  foresaw  the  danger  it  would  mean  for  Germany. 
When  Koniggratz  compelled  him  to  cede  the  hegemony  of 
Germany  to  Prussia  the  latter  took  over,  as  beneficium  in- 
ventarii,  the  hostility  of  France.  Prussia  knew  only  too  well 
how  to  convert  that  hostility  into  the  antagonism  of  the 
whole  world. 

"Thus  Prussia  prejudiced  that  peaceful  development 
which  Germany  still  needs  to  become  the  mistress  of  Europe 
within  a  measurable  time.  I  have  no  doubt  that  she  will 
ultimately  do  so.  At  the  present  moment  the  German 
Empire  hardly  has  one  rival.  England  is  perhaps  the  only 
possible  one.     But  England  has  other  missions  owing  to  her 

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Francis  Ferdinand 

insular  position  and  her  overseas  interests,  so  that  it  seems 
to  me  Germany  could  probably  come  to  some  understanding 
with  her.     That  should  not  be  very  difficult. 

"  France  on  the  other  hand  was  overthrown  on  the  battle- 
fields of  1870  and  1 87 1  and  hitherto  Russia  has  not  been  capable 
of  action  in  a  cultural  sense.  Thus  the  way  to  the  hegemony 
of  Europe  is  now  open  for  Germany.  The  German  spirit 
is  certainly  on  that  track  and  pursues  it  relentlessly,  methodi- 
cally and  with  an  unflagging  energy  one  cannot  but  admire. 

"Unfortunately  that  is  not  enough  for  the  mentality  of 
Prussian  imperialism.  With  its  '  force-your-way '  system  it 
drives  the  Germans  forward  ruthlessly  without  ever  reflecting 
that  they  may  strike  some  brick  wall  against  which  it  is  use- 
less for  them  to  knock  their  heads,  though  they  might  pick 
their  way  through  it  if  they  had  patience  enough.  The  latter 
alternative  means  time,  perhaps  a  good  deal  of  time.  The 
question  is  whether  Prussia  will  give  Germany  that  time  in 
view  of  the  fact  that  her  evolution  is  approaching  its  climax  ? 
It  can  only  be  a  matter  of  ten  years  or  so  before  Germany 
reaches  her  goal.  The  essential  thing  is  to  avoid  a  conflagra- 
tion in  Europe  during  that  period.  It  must  be  Germany's 
business  to  avert  such  a  conflict  if  she  doesn't  want  to  be 
not  only  permanently  thwarted  in  her  steady  rise,  but 
possibly  hurled  at  one  fell  swoop  from  the  heights  she  has 
already  climbed  at  such  a  cost  in  effort.  Do  Prussia's  policy 
and  behaviour  as  Germany's  mistress  enable  us  to  hope  that 
she  will  give  the  Germans  the  time  they  require  for  the  full 
development  of  their  powers.     Hardly.     You  wait  and  see  !  " 

Through  all  vicissitudes  the  Archduke  never  abandoned 
his  idea  of  a  federal  constitution  for  the  Monarchy.  As  I 
have  already  said  the  fact  that  he  cherished  such  plans,  and 
was  not  to  be  moved  from  his  standpoint,  was  bound  from  the 
outset  to  estrange  him  from  so  strong  a  conservative  as  the 
old  Emperor.  Unfortunately  an  event  occurred  which 
alienated  the  nephew  from  his  uncle  once  and  for  all  just  at 

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the  time  when  Francis  Joseph  was  getting  over  the  loss  of  his 
only  son,  thanks  to  the  healing  hand  of  time,  and  probably 
was  only  too  anxious  to  have  Francis  Ferdinand,  the  Crown 
Prince  Rudolph's  successor,  at  his  right  hand  as  the  help  and 
support  he  needed  so  badly.  However  great  their  efforts  to 
conceal  the  fact,  at  any  rate  from  the  outside  world,  from 
now  onwards  there  was  a  gulf  between  them  which  could  no 
longer  be  bridged. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  nineties  Francis  Ferdinand  had 
made  the  acquaintance  of  Countess  Sophie  von  Chotek,  a 
maid  of  honour  to  the  Archduchess  Isabella,  wife  of  the 
Archduke  Frederick  in  whose  house  he  met  her.  He  im- 
mediately announced  his  intention  of  making  her  his 
wife. 

This  was  a  terrible  blow  to  the  Emperor. 

At  first  the  idea  of  obtaining  his  consent  to  the  morganatic 
marriage  of  the  heir  to  the  throne,  of  all  men,  was  utterly 
unthinkable.  For  years  the  Emperor  used  all  the  resources  at 
his  command  in  his  stubborn  resistance  to  what  seemed  to 
him  the  Archduke's  monstrous  proposal.  It  was  only  when 
he  realized  that  his  opposition  was  probably  only  confirming 
Francis  Ferdinand  in  his  innate  and  obstinate  determination 
to  let  nothing  turn  him  from  his  fatal  project  that  the  old 
sovereign  gave  his  consent  to  the  morganatic  marriage  of  his 
nephew  and  heir,  albeit  with  heavy  heart. 

On  the  other  hand  the  Archduke  had  expressly  to 
renounce  the  succession  for  his  issue,  and  renounce  it 
solemnly  and  without  any  kind  of  mental  reservation.  He 
did  so  at  the  Hofburg  on  June,  28,  1900,  but  not  before  he 
had  made  the  most  strenuous  but  vain  efforts,  through  the 
medium  of  Court  dignitaries,  legal  experts  and  above  all  Dr. 
von  Korber  (the  Austrian  Minister-President,  who  was  in 
high  favour  with  the  Emperor),  to  get  the  conditions  modified. 
Thereupon  (on  July  i)  he  brought  Countess  Sophie  Chotek, 
already  thirty-two  years   of  age   and   created   Princess   von 

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Francis  Ferdinand 

Hohenberg  the  same  day,  home  as  his  bride  to  the  Castle  of 
Reichstadt. 

The  marriage  was  certainly  a  happy  one  in  itself,  but  it 
unquestionably  put  Francis  Ferdinand  in  a  difficult  position 
for  the  Princess,  a  woman  of  high  intelligence,  was  extraordin- 
arily ambitious,  resolute,  and  yet  vain  and  had  not  the 
slightest  intention  of  accommodating  herself  to  the  position  of 
a  morganatic  wife  kept  carefully  in  the  background.  On  the 
contrary  she  bent  every  nerve,  with  a  zeal  which  was  not 
always  coupled  with  the  necessary  tact — especially  after  she 
had  presented  her  husband  with  a  daughter  and  two  sons — 
to  assert  her  full  rights  as  the  wife  of  the  heir  to  the  throne. 

Sophie  Hohenberg  herself  was  the  last  to  repudiate  the 
suggestion.  She  once  betrayed  her  aspirations  to  me,  though 
indirectly,  in  a  way  which  could  not  be  misunderstood. 

When  the  Emperor  was  travelling  to  Reichenberg  in 
June  1906  to  visit  the  exhibition  there,  he  had  the  royal 
train  stopped  at  Beneschau  as  the  Archduke  Francis 
Ferdinand  and  his  wife  had  come  down  to  the  station  from 
the  neighbouring  castle  of  Konopischt  to  greet  him.  The 
Emperor  descended  from  his  saloon  and  talked  for  some  time 
with  his  nephew  and  the  Princess  of  Hohenberg.  During 
the  conversation  it  was  obvious  to  any  close  observer  that 
the  aged  monarch  was  anything  but  at  his  ease  in  talking  to 
the  Princess. 

When  the  train  proceeded  on  its  way  several  members 
of  the  Emperor's  suite  began  to  discuss  the  role  Sophie 
Hohenberg  might  one  day  play  when  Francis  Ferdinand 
ascended  the  throne  and  there  were  many  expressions  of 
dismay  and  apprehension  at  the  prospect.  Count  Paar  tried 
to  dispel  their  fears.  Speaking  entirely  in  accordance  with 
his  own  convictions,  he  said  : 

"  What  have  we  to  fear  from  the  Princess  ?  She'll  only 
be  what  Countess  Mirafiori  was  to  King  Victor  Emmanuel  H.  ! 
No  more  and  no  less  !     What  harm  did  Countess  Mirafiori 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

do  her  royal  husband  ?  Did  she  upset  his  court  ?  Was 
she  the  cause  of  any  difficulties  in  Italy  ?  None  that  I  know 
of  !  You  hardly  ever  saw  or  heard  anything  of  her,  and  it'll 
be  the  same  with  Sophie  Hohenberg." 

This  remark  of  the  old  General  which  was  certainly  not 
unkindly  meant  must  have  come  somehow  to  the  Princess 
of  Hohenberg's  ears.  I  found  out  how  she  took  it  and  indeed 
stored  it  up  in  her  memory  from  a  sharp  remark  she  let  fall 
in  a  talk  I  had  with  her  the  following  winter  on  quite  different 
topics.  She  remarked,  looking  me  straight  in  the  face  and 
quite  casually  :  "  I  hear  Count  Paar  has  compared  me  with 
Countess  Mirafiori,  but  I  think  he's  forgotten  that  I'm  of 
very  different  birth  and  have  had  a  very  different  education 
from  that  of  Countess  Mirafiori.  The  comparison  won't  hold. 
Indeed  it's  no  slight  insult  to  me.  You  can  tell  Count 
Paar  so.  I'm  no  Countess  Mirafiori,  and  devoutly  hope  I 
never  shall  be  !  " 

When  I  told  Count  Paar,  he  replied ;  "  I've  done  for 
myself  now  with  the  Hohenberg,  it's  all  up  with  me  as  far 
as  she's  concerned.  But  at  any  rate  it's  opened  my  eyes  as 
to  what  the  woman's  really  thinking  about.  I  know  from 
her  own  lips,  so  to  speak,  that  she's  aiming  high,  as  high  as 
ever  she  can  !  " 

These  conditions  were  likely  to  cause  fresh  and  highly 
regrettable  political  complications  in  the  Danube  Monarchy 
which  had  already  more  than  enough  difficulties  to  cope  with. 
It  was  exactly  what  the  Emperor  himself  had  feared.  He  had 
put  these  feelings  into  words  when  his  consent  to  the 
marriage  had  at  length  been  wrung  from  him  : 

"  It  seems  I'm  to  be  spared  nothing  on  this  earth  !  " 

I  once  had  a  long  conversation  on  the  subject  of  Sophie 
Chotek  with  Dr.  Godfried  Marschall,  the  suffragan  Bishop 
of  Vienna  who  for  years  was  a  familiar  figure  in  the  Archduke 
Charles  Ludwig's  house  and  was  extremely  weU  informed 
about  the  private  affairs  of  the  Imperial  family.     His  feelings 

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Francis  Ferdinand 

were  so  strong  that  he  ended  up  by  roundly  asserting  that 
the  Emperor  made  the  greatest  mistake  in  the  whole  of  his 
life  when  he  allowed  this  morganatic  marriage. 

"  You  see  if  Sophie  Hohenberg  doesn't  in  time  per- 
suade the  Archduke  to  clear  the  way  to  the  throne  for  her 
children  !  " 

Marschall  went  on  to  say  in  disconsolate  tones  that  the 
Emperor  must  have  anticipated  such  complications  and  that 
it  was  nothing  less  than  foolish  of  him  to  play  ostrich  once 
more  and  be  satisfied  by  a  few  legal  formulae.  It  meant 
washing  his  hands  in  innocency  or  resigning  himself  to  the 
far  from  comforting  idea  :  "  After  us  the  deluge  ! ''  The 
Archduke  should  either  have  made  his  decision  in  favour  of 
his  wife  and  been  compelled  to  renounce  all  his  rights  once 
and  for  all,  or  he  should  have  remained  the  heir  and  had 
to  give  up  his  marriage  with  Sophie  Chotek.  There  was 
no  middle  course  in  affairs  of  this  kind.  The  stakes  are  too 
high. 

When  I  remarked  that  this  point  of  view  seemed  to  me 
somewhat  too  extreme,  the  bishop,  usually  the  kindest  and 
mildest  of  men,  waxed  quite  furious  and  contemptuous  : 

"  It's  always  the  same  with  our  royalties !  They're  tre- 
mendous sticklers  for  their  prerogatives  but  don't  bother 
a  bit  about  the  duties  inseparably  associated  with  them  !  " 

Dr.  Marschall  angrily  referred  me  to  the  rules  obtaining 
at  other  courts  and  the  particular  case  of  Prince  Oskar  of 
Sweden  who  was  not  an  heir  to  the  throne  but  had  had,  as 
Count  Bernadotte,  to  live  in  exile  in  England  with  his  wife, 
Ebba  Munk,  a  lady  of  noble  family.  He  had  been  forced  to 
renounce  his  rank  as  a  royal  prince  on  account  of  his 
marriage. 

"  What  are  the  Bernadottes  compared  with  the  Hapsburgs  ? 
Not  to  be  mentioned  in  the  same  breath  !  Yet  King  Oskar 
II.,  himself  an  old  man,  took  the  right  view  of  the  matter 
and  was  strong  enough  to  get  his  own  way.     Our  old  Emperor 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

could  do  neither  and  you  may  take  it  from  me  that  we  shall 
pay  for  it  heavily  before  we've  finished." 

I  thought  I  could  answer  so  severe  a  verdict  with  doubt 
as  to  the  Archduke's  intention  of  securing  the  throne  for  his 
children.  I  said  I  knew  that  the  Archduke  was  much  too 
honourable  and  too  good  a  Catholic  to  break  the  oath  he  had 
sworn  on  the  Bible.  I  also  thought  that  the  rumours  of 
Sophie  Hohenberg's  insatiable  ambition  were  exaggerated  and 
malevolent ;  in  short,  that  nothing  particularly  dreadful  need 
be  expected  from  her. 

"  That's  where  you're  wrong,  badly  wrong,"  Bishop  Mar- 
schall  interrupted  in  excitement.  "  The  woman's  ambition  is 
unbridled  and  her  unusual  intelligence  will  soon  show 
her  the  way  to  translate  it  into  fact.  It's  a  downright  piece 
of  luck  that  we  don't  know  all  that's  going  on  in  her  head, 
but  the  best  proof  that  she's  aiming  high  is  the  fact  that  she 
is  always  proclaiming,  urbi  et  orbij  that  a  mission  of  the  greatest 
importance  to  the  Monarchy  has  been  entrusted  to  her  ! 
Indeed,  she  goes  so  far  as  to  say  that  Providence  has  assigned 
to  her  personally  a  great  mission  for  the  Hapsburg  Empire  !  " 

This  proud  claim  of  the  Duchess  of  Hohenberg  was 
destined  to  be  realized  only  too  soon,  but  not  in  the  sense 
in  which  she  meant  it.  In  actual  fact  one  of  the  greatest 
and  most  terrible  missions  for  the  Danube  Monarchy  was 
reserved  for  her — nothing  less  than  to  be  the  immediate 
cause  of  the  downfall  and  destruction  of  the  venerable 
Hapsburg  Empire  ! 

Such  was  the  situation  as  regards  the  Archduke  Francis 
Ferdinand  from  that  time  forward.  How  could  the 
Emperor  be  expected  to  accept  it  ?  And  yet  he  did  so 
ultimately,  though  very  slowly  and  gradually,  and  only  because 
his  growing  consciousness  of  age  and  natural  pliability  made 
any  other  course  impossible  in  the  long  run. 

Francis  Ferdinand,  who  was  certainly  more  alive  to  the 
internal  progressive  changes  in  the  Empire  than  the  Emperor 

132 


Francis  Ferdinand 

-essentially  the  product  of  another  era — gradually  tended 
to  take  much  of  the  business  of  government  out  of  the  latter's 
hands. 

In  transacting  such  business  there  was  one  thing  about  the 
Archduke  which  put  him  above  all  other  Hapsburgs,  not 
excluding  the  Emperor  himself. 

He  had  cut  loose  from  the  "  minutes  and  memoranda  " 
method  of  treating  State  business  which  had  been  peculiar 
to  the  Emperor.  He  did  not  wait  for  matters  to  be  brought 
to  his  notice,  but  attacked  problems  on  his  own  initiative. 
He  had  an  open  mind  and  boldly  faced  the  new  questions 
which  arose  in  the  Danube  Monarchy,  or  seemed  likely  to 
affect  its  relations  with  foreign  powers.  He  personally 
invoked  the  advice  of  those  he  thought  competent  to  give 
it  and  in  doing  so  had  no  regard  for  the  limits  of  departmental 
authority  but  appealed  to  intelligence  and  experience  wher- 
ever he  could  find  them,  whether  in  or  out  of  office. 

This  system,  worked  by  an  intellect  so  disciplined  as  that 
of  Francis  Ferdinand,  must  have  produced  excellent  results 
if  he  had  been  spared  to  take  his  uncle's  place. 

The  credit  of  having  placed  him  on  this  higher  pedestal 
and  given  him  his  width  of  outlook  must  be  given  mainly 
to  Major  Alexander  von  Brosch-Aarenau,  who  was  his  aide- 
de-camp  for  many  years.  Brosch-Aarenau  was  also  the 
originator  of  the  Archduke's  military  cabinet,  which  de- 
veloped from  a  small  personal  staff  to  one  of  the  most  impor- 
tant parts  of  the  state  machinery  of  Austria-Hungary. 
Even  when  Brosch-Aarenau  handed  over  the  direction  of 
Francis  Ferdinand's  military  cabinet  to  his  successor.  Colonel 
Bardolif  of  the  General  Staff,  a  man  pre-eminent  for  his 
unusual  gifts,  the  Archduke  did  not  hesitate  frequently  to 
take  Brosch's  opinion.  He  always  corresponded  freely  with 
him  and  occasionally  invited  him  even  to  conferences.  These 
conferences  not  only  gave  Francis  Ferdinand  unprejudiced 
information  as  to  the  tendencies  and  movements  of  the  day 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

but  brought  him  many  most  helpful  suggestions.  Their 
value  was  all  the  greater  as  they  enlarged  the  Archduke's 
outlook  while  the  Emperor  only  too  readily  buried  himself 
in  details  and  trivialities  and  thus  not  infrequently  could 
not  see  the  wood  for  the  trees. 

That  being  the  case,  Francis  Ferdinand's  co-operation 
would  have  been  of  great  value  to  the  old  Emperor  and  un- 
suspected advantages  might  have  flowed  from  it.  That 
things  turned  out  otherwise  is  greatly  to  be  regretted. 
Emperor  and  Heir  Presumptive  worked  on  lines  which  diverged 
rather  than  converged. 

From  1906  the  Archduke  was  undeniably  gaining  the  upper 
hand  even  in  military  affairs,  and  it  would  be  unjust  to  over- 
look the  fact  that  the  belated  reorganization  of  the  army  and 
the  fleet,  as  yet  only  half  completed,  was  his  work  and  must  be 
placed  to  his  credit  as  an  important  service. 

Even  here  there  could  be  no  question  of  fruitful  co-opera- 
tion between  the  Emperor  and  the  Heir.  The  reason  was 
that  the  Archduke,  naturally  reserved  and  goaded  by  his 
domineering  wife  into  an  attitude  of  opposition  even  in  matters 
of  small  importance,  avoided  rather  than  sought  continuous 
or  even  frequent  contact  with  the  sovereign.  He  kept  to 
his  own  path  along  which  his  problems  and  plans  were  at 
first  allowed  to  travel  at  will.  If  in  the  decisive  phase  they 
clashed  with  the  Emperor's  orders,  then  and  not  till  then 
would  the  Archduke  demand,  sometimes  personally,  some- 
times by  letter,  the  consideration  of  his  views  and  wishes.  As 
a  rule  the  aged  Emperor  would  as  far  as  possible  fall  in  with 
the  Archduke's  proposals ;  by  no  means  willingly  but  rather 
after  the  manner  of  those  overworked,  weary  husbands  who 
shrink  from  every  household  difficulty  with  a  helpless,  "  Any- 
thing for  a  quiet  life." 

Although  the  wound  inflicted  on  the  Emperor  by  Francis 
Ferdinand's  marriage  never  healed  but  rather  continued  to 
spread  and  fester,  after  a  time  he  began  to  meet  the  Princess 

134 


Francis  Ferdinand 

of  Hohenberg  occasionally,  and  she  received  the  title  of 
Duchess  and  was  styled  "  Highness."  The  Duchess  attached 
great  importance  to  being  seen  in  public  at  the  Emperor's 
side,  on  which  occasions  she  eagerly  snapped  up  every  word 
he  addressed  to  her.  Meanwhile  she  worked  hard  and  pur- 
posefully to  strengthen  her  personal  position  and  allowed 
nothing  to  divert  her  progress  up  the  somewhat  shppery 
ladder  that  one  day  was  to  bring  her  to  the  level  of  complete 
equality  with  her  husband. 

The  practical  results  of  these  fevered  efforts,  scarcely  visible 
on  the  surface  but  secretly  straining  to  the  utmost  every  nerve 
of  the  Duchess  of  Hohenberg,  at  last  became  apparent.  They 
became  publicly  noticeable  when  she  succeeded  in  accom- 
panying the  heir  to  the  Courts  of  Saxony,  Rome  and  finally 
Germany,  where — to  please  the  Archduke — she  was  re- 
ceived with  every  honour.  It  was  well  known  in  Berlin 
that  there  was  no  surer  way  than  this  to  the  heart  of  Francis 
Ferdinand,  and  the  German  Court  acted  in  its  own  interest  in 
adopting  this  attitude  without  bothering  its  head  about  the 
morganatic  business. 

It  cannot  be  wondered  at  that  there  was  no  lack  of  bitter 
comment  and  sneering  behind  the  Duchess's  back.  I 
was  informed,  almost  officially,  that  the  present  Queen  of 
Rumania  let  it  be  understood  in  no  uncertain  fashion  that 
there  is  a  vast  difference  between  the  morganatic  wife  of  the 
heir  to  a  throne  and  one  of  equal  birth,  especially  when  the 
latter  can  claim  direct  descent  from  the  reigning  houses  of 
Russia  and  England.  With  the  best  of  intentions  Princess 
Marie,  as  she  was  then,  could  not  resist  this  snub. 

In  spite  of  all,  however,  the  Duchess  of  Hohenberg  was 
quite  unable  to  follow  up  at  home  her  hard-won  success 
abroad  ;  in  Austria  she  could  not  carry  off  her  role  of  *'  Erz.- 
herzogin  zur  linken  Hand."  The  people  of  the  Dual 
Monarchy — with  the  exception  of  a  few  isolated  approaches 
in  which  the  underlying  egoistic  motives  were  obvious — had 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

no  sympathy  with  the  Duchess.  With  that  unerring  instinct 
in  these  matters  which  is  so  peculiarly  characteristic  of  the 
masses,  they  could  see  in  her  only  an  intruder  in  the  ancient 
royal  house.  The  gradually  spreading  rumour  that  the 
Duchess  was  miserly,  bigoted  and  harsh  towards  her  house- 
hold staff,  further  contributed  to  make  both  Austria  and 
Hungary  disinclined  to  sympathize  with  her  ambitions. 

Then  came  an  unexpectedly  favourable  opportunity  for 
her  to  present  herself  to  the  people  as  the  wife  of  the  heir, 
an  opportunity  at  which  Sophie  Hohenberg  eagerly  snatched. 

This  was  the  journey  to  Bosnia  at  the  end  of  June,  1914  ; 
here  at  last  was  a  chance  for  the  Duchess  of  Hohenberg  to  step 
into  the  full  limelight  at  her  husband's  side  within  the 
domains  of  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph. 

Early  in  the  morning  of  June  24,  1914,  the  programmes  of 
the  journey  were  handed  to  me  from  the  office  of  the  Controller 
of  the  Imperial  Household,  with  the  express  instructions  that 
they  were  merely  for  the  information  of  Count  Paar  and  were 
to  go  no  further,  as  all  details  would  be  arranged  elsewhere. 

The  programmes  were  printed  in  two  different  forms, 
because  the  Duchess  of  Hohenberg  was  travelling  direct  to 
Sarajevo,  whereas  the  Archduke  Francis  Ferdinand  was  first 
to  be  present  at  the  Bosnian  military  manoeuvres.  But  the 
composition  of  both  was  striking  to  anyone  who  knew  anything 
at  all  of  the  court  routine.  That  of  the  Duchess  was  also 
couched  in  the  official  form,  setting  out  every  detail  cere- 
moniously and  authoritatively,  which  hitherto  had  been 
used  exclusively  for  occasions  when  the  Emperor  was  making 
visits  of  state  in  his  capacity  as  ruler  and  head  of  the  State. 
It  had  recently  been  adopted,  though  only  rarely  and  at  the 
express  command  of  the  Emperor,  in  the  case  of  one  or  two 
special  missions  undertaken  by  the  heir  presumptive  as  the 
direct  representative  of  the  sovereign. 

When  Count  Paar  read  the  Duchess's  programme  he 
ejaculated  in  astonishment  : 

136 


Francis  Ferdinand 

"  This  is  pretty  strong  !     What  are  we  coming  to  ?  " 

I  took  the  liberty  of  remarking  :  "  The  Emperor's  con- 
sent must  have  been  obtained  !  " 

"  Possibly,"  replied  Count  Paar  ;  but  his  tone  told  me 
that  he  did  not  believe  it.  Without  further  remark  he  left 
the  carrying  out  of  the  programme  to  the  Emperor. 

The  latter  then  ordered  all  preparations  to  be  made  for 
his  departure  for  Ischl  on  the  27th  June,  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  only  the  day  before  he  had  definitely  declared  that  owing 
to  the  many  claims  of  pressing  state  affairs,  he  could  not  think 
of  visiting  his  summer  seat  before  the  middle  of  July.  This 
change  of  programme  was  more  than  astonishing  in  a  man  like 
the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  who  as  a  rule  never  altered 
his  plans.  The  explanation  soon  became  apparent  :  the 
Emperor  took  this  course  to  avoid  the  impending  personal 
interview  with  his  nephew  on  his  return  to  Vienna  from  the 
south-east.  The  form  in  which  the  latter  and  his  wife  had 
announced  their  proposed  journey  had  by  no  means  found 
favour  with  the  Emperor  whom  it  had  taken  by  surprise  : 
too  old  and  weary  to  put  his  foot  down,  he  preferred  to 
avoid  a  meeting  with  his  heir. 

On  the  day  following  the  Emperor's  arrival  at  Ischl,  Sun- 
day, the  28th  June,  191 4,  in  the  early  afternoon  the  news 
came  through  by  telegraph  of  the  murder  of  the  heir  and  his 
wife  at  Sarajevo.  The  Serbs  knew  well  enough  with  whom 
they  had  to  deal.  The  feeling  that  Francis  Ferdinand  might 
be  dangerous  to  them,  might  interfere  with  their  plans, 
drove  them  to  get  him  out  of  the  way. 

Without  delay  Count  Paar  brought  the  terrible  news  to 
the  Emperor  who  ordered  the  return  to  Vienna  for  the 
following  morning.  During  the  day  I  was  up  to  my  eyes  in 
work  and  had  no  opportunity  of  discussing  with  Count  Paar 
this  ghastly  tragedy  which  had  fallen  like  a  thunderbolt  from 
heaven.  The  opportunity  did  not  come  until  late  in  the 
evening. 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

Count  Paar  began  the  conversation  : 

"  The  Emperor  is  now  an  old  man ;  he  has  gone  through 
so  much  trouble  already — much  worse  than  this." 

"  True,"  I  replied ;  "  but  this  disaster  must  have  been  a 
terrible  blow  to  him." 

"  Of  course,"  returned  Count  Paar ;  "  but  you  know  how 
it  was  between  the  Emperor  and  the  Archduke  :  there  was  no 
love  lost.  It  has  always  been  the  same.  The  Archduke  has 
done  a  great  deal  to  estrange  his  uncle  who  was  originally 
favourably  disposed  towards  him. 

"  It  is  a  long  time  ago  since  the  personal  relations  of  the 
two  ceased  to  be  cordial.  Then  came  the  marriage  which 
the  Emperor,  as  head  of  the  dynasty  and  a  stern  upholder  of 
the  legitimist  principle,  could  not  forgive.  This  marriage 
caused  the  monarch  the  bitterest  heart-searchings  ;  even 
after  the  Archduke's  formal  renunciation  of  the  succession  for 
his  children  the  Emperor  could  never  get  rid  of  the  fear  that 
Francis  Ferdinand,  encouraged  and  goaded  by  his  over- 
ambitious  wife,  would  one  day  find  ways  and  means  to  secure 
the  throne  for  her  eldest  son.  These  anxieties  gnawed  in- 
cessantly and  painfully  at  the  Emperor's  heart.  He  was  for 
ever  reproaching  himself  in  the  bitterest  terms  for  having 
allowed  the  marriage,  even  under  these  conditions,  and  so 
perhaps  exposed  the  empire,  already  shaken  by  a  succession  of 
heavy  blows,  to  a  disaster  that  might  well  be  fatal." 

"  And  now — why  should  I  conceal  anything  from  you  ?  " 
the  Count  went  on  hesitatingly,  after  a  few  moments  of  silent 
reflection  :  "  The  Emperor  didn't  say  much  about  to-day's 
awful  calamity.  At  first  he  was  overwhelmed,  as  though 
stunned  by  the  blow  ;  for  a  few  minutes  he  closed  his  eyes 
and  remained  lost  in  thought.  Then  he  spoke — not  so  much 
to  me  as  to  himself — the  words  seemed  to  tear  themselves 
from  his  heart : 

"  '  Horrible  !  The  Almighty  does  not  allow  Himself  to  be 
challenged  with  impunity  ...  A  higher  power  has  restored 

138 


Francis  Ferdinand 

the  old  order  which  I  unfortunately  was  unable  to  uphold 
.  .  .  '  finally  the  Emperor,  betraying  signs  of  the  deepest 
emotion,  turned  to  me  and  ordered  to-morrow's  return  to 
Vienna.     Not  another  word." 

Shortly  afterwards  Count  Paar  quietly  repeated  the 
Emperor's  words  : 

"  '  The  Almighty  does  not  allow  Himself  to  be  challenged 
with  impunity  ...  A  higher  power  .  .  .  '  The  old 
Count  was  in  the  habit  of  repeating  noteworthy  sayings  of  his 
master  over  and  over  again  to  stamp  them  deep  on  his  memory  ; 
that  he  should  follow  this  custom  unconsciously  now  con- 
vinced me  that  these  were  the  exact  words  that  had  fallen 
from  the  Emperor's  lips. 

And  they  show,  better  than  any  more  explicit  statement, 
what  were  the  relations  between  the  Emperor  and  Archduke 
Francis  Ferdinand  at  the  last.  With  the  death  of  the 
Archduke  and  his  wife  a  load  fell  from  the  old  monarch's 
heart;  the  Emperor — say  what  you  will — could  not  restrain 
a  feeling  of  relief. 

But — oltre  il  rogo  non  vive  ira  nemica — the  Emperor  now 
hastened  to  Vienna  to  do  the  last  honours  to  the  murdered 
pair  and  to  take  their  orphaned  children  to  his  arms.  Back 
in  his  palace  his  first  thoughts  were  for  these  orphans  :  he 
at  once  summoned  the  Princess  and  Princes  of  Hohenberg — 
for  the  first  time  in  their  lives — and  remained  for  a  long 
time  with  them,  doing  what  he  could  to  comfort  and  console 
them.  Then  he  dealt  with  the  arrangements  for  the  State 
funeral,  which,  unfortunately,  was  to  give  rise  to  serious 
difficulty. 

For  it  was  not  easy  to  find  a  precedent  for  the  burial  of 
the  late  Archduke's  morganatic  wife  in  the  unelastic  regula- 
tions of  the  court  ceremonial,  set  hard  and  fast  by  ancient 
tradition.  All  the  less  so  since  Archduke  Francis  Ferdinand 
had  been  Inspector-General  of  the  military  forces,  a  fact 
which  alone  would  call  for  a  display  of  the  most  elaborate 

139 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

military  ceremonial  at  his  funeral.  To  meet  the  difficulty, 
separate  funerals  for  the  murdered  pair  in  Vienna  were  pro- 
posed in  many  quarters  as  the  simplest  and  most  appropriate 
solution.  This  proposal  was  supported  by  the  fact  that  in 
any  case — in  accordance  with  Francis  Ferdinand's  will — the 
pair  were  to  be  buried  side  by  side  in  the  vaults  of  the  castle 
of  Artstetten  in  Lower  Austria. 

But  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  would  not  hear  of  such  a 
thing.  He  declared  emphatically  that  Francis  Ferdinand 
and  Sophie  Hohenberg  had  died  together,  victims  of  the  same 
conspiracy,  and  must  together  receive  the  last  rites  of  the 
Church,  both  in  Vienna  and  at  Artstetten.  In  this  the 
monarch  was  certainly  right. 

In  allowing  himself  to  be  persuaded  to  reduce  the  pomp  of 
the  funeral  rites  to  a  minimum,  however,  he  made  a  serious  mis- 
take for  a  section  of  public  opinion  interpreted  the  command, 
the  significance  of  which  was  not  at  first  generally  grasped,  as 
an  intention  on  the  Emperor's  part  to  show  his  displeasure 
at  Francis  Ferdinand's  morganatic  marriage,  and  reveal  his 
strained  relations  with  the  Archduke  and  his  wife  even 
beyond  the  grave.  Unhappily,  colour  was  given  to  this 
interpretation  by  the  autograph  memorandum  of  July  6, 
1914,  from  the  Emperor  to  the  Controller  of  the  Imperial 
Household,  Prince  Montenuovo,  which  expressly  laid  down 
that  all  the  details  of  the  arrangements  for  the  funeral  pro- 
cession of  the  murdered  pair  in  Vienna  were  to  be  submitted 
for  the  Emperor's  personal  approval. 

The  Emperor  thought  this  course  necessary  in  order  to 
protect  Prince  Montenuovo  against  the  criticism  to  which 
he  would  certainly  have  been  subjected  as  a  result  of  the 
drastic  restrictions  on  the  display  of  sorrow  at  court,  and  the 
absence  of  official  pomp  and  foreign  mourners. 

This  object  was  attained,  and  the  Controller  of  the 
Imperial  Household,  who — I  have  never  been  able  to  under- 
stand why — was   not   popular   with  the  people   of  Vienna, 

140 


Francis  Ferdinand 

seemed  to  some  extent  to  be  reinstated  in  their  favour. 
So  high  had  feeling  run  against  him  at  this  juncture  that, 
in  order  to  give  public  expression  to  it,  a  few  members  of  the 
aristocracy  and  certain  officers  had  thought  fit  to  ignore  the 
instructions  issued  for  the  funeral  procession  in  Vienna  and, 
during  the  last  stage  to  the  Westbahnhof,  from  which  the 
remains  of  the  Archduke  Francis  Ferdinand  and  the  Duchess 
of  Hohenberg  were  to  be  conveyed  to  Artstetten,  they  formed 
a  separate  escort.  Many  of  them  passed  uncomplimentary 
remarks,  not  only  about  Prince  Montenuovo,  but  also — 
though  in  a  veiled  form — about  the  old  Emperor. 

There  was  another  important  reason  for  not  inviting 
foreign  princes  to  the  funeral  ceremonies.  Such  an  invi- 
tation would  have  had  to  be  sent  to  every  court,  including 
Belgrade.  As  King  Peter  had  for  years  been  doing  his 
utmost  to  get  himself  received  at  the  Austrian  Court  it  was 
fairly  probable  that  he  would  accept  the  invitation.  This 
would  have  given  rise  to  a  whole  series  of  very  awkward  situa- 
tions for  the  Emperor,  so  that,  from  this  point  of  view  alone 
it  seemed  advisable  to  abandon  the  idea  of  a  ceremonial 
procession. 

There  was,  however,  another  deeper  and  weightier  politi- 
cal motive  for  this  absence  of  pomp  and  ceremony  in  the 
funeral  arrangements  which  was  popularly  regarded  as  being 
too  drastic  ;  the  two  Minister-Presidents  and  Count  Berch- 
told  would  not  have  been  anxious  to  have  the  funeral  attended 
by  foreign  potentates  or  their  representatives,  especially  in 
the  case  of  Russia,  England  and  Italy,  for  that  would  naturally 
have  given  an  opportunity  for  a  discussion  of  the  Austrian 
attitude  towards  Serbia.  It  was  desirable  that  such  discussion 
should  be  avoided  at  all  costs  so  long  as  they  were  not  yet  quite 
clear  in  their  own  minds  what  attitude  they  were  to  adopt 
towards  the  Belgrade  government.  It  was  obvious  that  they 
were  already  contemplating  exceptionally  sharp  measures 
against  Serbia  and  wanted  to  avoid  any  risk  of  intervention 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

by  foreign  mourners.  The  ruling  political  circles  in  Vienna 
were  anxious  to  maintain  the  fullest  freedom  of  action  in  any 
event,  and,  with  this  in  view,  excluded  participation  by  foreign 
courts  with  the  excuse  of  a  very  simple  funeral. 

Count  Paar  discussed  these  points  of  view  with  me  from 
time  to  time,  and  concluded  his  remarks  by  pointing  out 
that  in  1859  England  held  back  the  arm  Austria  had  already 
raised  against  Piedmont,  with  results  seriously  disadvantageous 
to  our  interests. 

"  That  game  must  not  be  repeated,"  said  the  Count. 
We  can't  let  this  funeral  provide  even  a  shadow  of  excuse 
for  it  !  " 

Thus  the  Sarajevo  crime  left  lingering  echoes  of  harsh 
discord  in  Vienna,  to  which,  during  the  actual  interment 
in  Artstetten,  the  elements  contributed  a  last  chord  with  the 
crash  of  thunder,  lightning,  storms  of  hail  and  a  roaring  wind. 
It  was  as  if  this  event  had  called  down  the  wrath  of  the 
whole  universe,  this  tremendous  storm  heralding  the 
tempest  of  fire  and  steel,  blood  and  tears  which  was  about 
to  sweep  down  over  the  horror-stricken  human  race. 


142 


CHAPTER  VI 
THE  ARCHDUKE  CHARLES 

ON  June  29,  1914,  when  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph, 
after  receiving  news  of  the  murder  of  Archduke 
Francis  Ferdinand  and  the  Duchess  of  Hohenberg,  imme- 
diately broke  off  his  summer  visit  to  Ischl,  where  he  had 
arrived  only  two  days  before,  and  hurried  back  to  Vienna, 
he  was  met  at  Penzing  station  by  the  new  heir,  the  Arch- 
duke Charles.  The  Archduke  wore  the  full-dress  uniform 
of  a  lieutenant-colonel  of  the  39th  Hungarian  Infantry 
Regiment,  and  as  his  great-uncle  alighted  from  the  train 
he  approached  respectfully,  observing  full  military  ceremonial. 
The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph,  visibly  pleased  to  see  the 
Archduke  Charles  immediately  on  his  arrival  in  the  capital, 
grasped  his  right  hand  with  both  his  own  and  pressed  it  long 
and  warmly.  He  then  took  the  arm  of  the  young  Archduke 
and  accompanied  him  to  the  imperial  carriage  waiting 
at  the  station  entrance.  In  this  the  Emperor  and  Archduke 
took  their  places  side  by  side.  Amidst  the  enthusiastic  cheer- 
ing of  the  dense  crowds  which  lined  both  sides  of  every 
street  the  sovereign  and  his  new  heir  drove  to  Schonbrunn. 

It  was  at  once  clear  to  all  that  the  Archduke  Charles* 
who  had  hitherto  kept  almost  entirely  aloof  from  the  public 
gaze,  was  now  taking  a  position  in  the  foreground  of  the 
political  stage.  This  was  all  the  more  marked — particularly 
during  this  memorable  drive  side  by  side  with  the  eighty- 
four-year  old  monarch — since  it  was  plain  that,  according  to 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

human  standards,  it  could  not  be  very  long  before  the  fate 
of  the  millions  who  made  up  the  Hapsburg  Empire  would  fall 
under  his  supreme  control. 

Naturally  the  Archduke  Charles  at  once  became  the 
cynosure  of  all  eyes.  The  interest  taken  in  him  became 
keen  and  lively  ;  on  all  sides  men  wondered  what  they  might 
expect  from  this  new  heir  to  the  throne.  Not  much  was 
known  about  him.  Of  course  he  was  not  entirely  a  stranger 
to  the  Viennese,  but  hitherto  they  had  had  no  reason  to  dis- 
tinguish him  particularly  from  the  many  other  archdukes 
who  made  up  the  very  large  royal  family. 

From  the  day  in  question,  however,  all  that  was  funda- 
mentally changed.  The  quite  exceptional  heartiness  of  the 
greeting  accorded  him  at  the  Penzing  station  by  the  Em- 
peror Francis  Joseph,  usually  far  from  demonstrative,  made 
this  clear.  I  had  the  impression  at  the  time  that  the  Emperor 
found  it  very  gratifying  in  those  grave  times  to  feel  at  his 
side  an  heir  who  had  come  into  his  new  rights  in  the  full 
power  of  his  young  manhood  ;  besides,  here  at  last  was  an 
heir  without  blemish  in  the  eyes  of  this  man  of  strong  views. 
That  was  a  factor  of  the  utmost  importance  in  the  old  Em- 
peror's eyes.  The  murdered  Francis  Ferdinand  had,  in  part 
at  any  rate,  lost  the  confidence  he  had  once  enjoyed  by  his 
morganatic  marriage  ;  this  was  the  view  the  Emperor  had 
taken  and  maintained.  On  this  point  he  remained  adamant. 
The  resultant  anxiety  which  weighed  him  down  and,  in 
particular,  clouded  all  his  visions  of  the  future,  prevented 
him  from  according  to  the  Archduke  Francis  Ferdinand 
that  cordiality  and  confidence  which  were  indispensable  to 
the  monarch  and  his  heir  if  the  public  good  was  to  be  served. 

In  the  case  of  the  Archduke  Charles  these  obstacles  no 
longer  existed.  From  the  outset,  therefore,  his  position  in 
relation  to  the  Emperor  was  appreciably  more  favourable 
than  that  of  his  deceased  uncle  had  ever  been.  Thus  the 
Archduke  Charles  came,  as  it  were  automatically,  nearer  to 

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The  Archduke  Charles 

the  heart  of  the  people  of  the  Danube  Monarchy,  as  there 
were  no  misunderstandings  between  him  and  the  sovereign 
who  had  endeared  himself  to  his  people  by  threads  of  affec- 
tion which  had  been  nearly  seven  decades  in  the  weaving. 
This  is  the  explanation  of  the  frank  and  affectionate  sympathy 
immediately  extended  from  all  sides  to  the  Archduke  Charles. 
Its  foundations  were  further  widened  and  deepened  by  the 
merry  and  attractive  personality  of  the  young  heir.  The 
question  naturally  asked  in  many  quarters  in  the  last  days  of 
June,  1914  :  What  may  we  expect  from  Archduke  Charles  ? 
met  at  once  with  an  emphatically  favourable  answer  on  purely 
sentimental  grounds. 

Even  to  those  who  gave  the  matter  deeper  consideration 
such  an  answer  appeared  to  be  not  unjustified,  for  so  far 
the  career  of  Archduke  Charles  offered  no  reason  for  mis- 
givings for  the  future. 

Born  on  17th  August,  1887,  in  the  castle  at  Persenberg, 
on  the  Danube,  as  eldest  son  of  the  Archduke  Otto  (who 
died  on  the  1st  November,  1906)  and  his  wife  Maria  Josepha, 
the  Archduke  Charles  had  in  his  mother  a  daughter  of  King 
George  of  Saxony  and  the  most  tender  and  selfless  guardian  of 
his  childhood.  When  he  was  barely  eight  years  old,  two 
tutors.  Captain  Count  Georg  Wallis  and  Dr.  Joseph  Holz- 
lechner,  were  appointed  to  direct  his  first  studies.  These 
he  dispensed  with,  when,  from  1897  to  1904,  he  attended  the 
Schottengymnasium  in  Vienna.  To  the  general  and  humanistic 
curricula  were  added  in  his  case  a  special  linguistic  course 
which  was  developed  in  a  practical  way  by  visits  to  Hungary 
and  France.  The  Archduke  also  studied  the  Czech  and 
English  languages ;  in  all  these  he  attained  considerable 
fluency.  That  foreign  travel  in  his  case,  too,  proved  of 
great  value  in  mastering  the  various  languages  was  made 
clear  to  me  by  a  chance  remark  of  Count  Wallis.  The  Arch- 
duke, employing  the  usual  grammatical  method,  had  been 
working  simultaneously  at  French  and  Hungarian,  and  found 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

neither  easy  to  acquire.  He  then  paid  a  visit  to  Hungary, 
at  the  end  of  which  Count  Wallis  asked  him  in  which  language 
he  could  express  himself  with  greater  ease,  French  or  Hun- 
garian. "  Far  more  easily  and  accurately  in  Hungarian, 
of  course,"  replied  Archduke  Charles.  Shortly  afterwards 
he  made  a  considerable  stay  in  France,  and  on  his  return  to 
Vienna,  Count  Wallis  repeated  the  question  ;  this  time  the 
Archduke  replied  with  complete  conviction :  "  Incom- 
parably better  and  more  fluently  in  French,  of  course  !  " 

Not  until  his  sixteenth  year  did  Archduke  Charles  begin 
to  add  instruction  in  military  matters  to  his  curriculum. 
In  order  to  gain  an  inside  knowledge  of  these  subjects  he  was, 
in  the  autumn  of  1904,  gazetted  a  lieutenant  in  the  ist  Uhlan 
Regiment,  his  father's.  From  October  i,  1905,  he  was  per- 
manently attached  to  the  7th  Dragoon  Regiment.  He 
remained  with  this  regiment  for  fully  seven  years  to  learn 
the  practical  side  of  military  service.  During  this  relatively 
long  period  he  not  only  saw  service  with  his  squadron,  first 
as  a  subaltern  and  then  as  squadron  commander  in  Bilin, 
Brandeis  on  the  Elbe  and  Altbunzlau  in  Bohemia,  as  well  as 
Kolomea  in  Galicia,  but  he  went  through  a  two-years'  course 
of  juristic  studies  in  Prague  under  the  direction  of  professors 
at  the  German  University  there. 

The  fact  that  the  Archduke  served  for  many  years  with 
the  same  cavalry  regiment  and,  with  only  occasional  inter- 
ruptions, lived  in  the  somewhat  restricted  atmosphere  of  the 
Corps  of  officers,  was  bound  to  influence  his  mental  and 
moral  development.  In  any  case  his  time  at  Prague  Uni- 
versity left  few  traces  of  its  influence  upon  him,  not  least 
because  in  the  regiment  the  exceptionally  good-natured  and 
easy-going  Archduke  found  himself  for  the  first  time  in  a 
self-contained  world.  The  men  by  whom  he  was  continually 
surrounded  and  among  whom  his  rank  gave  him  the  leading 
role,  saw  to  it  that  he  should  be  pleased  with  the  new  position 
they  had  made  for  him  and  regard  it  as  something  worth 

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The  Archduke  Charles 

striving  for  in  the  future.  This  is  the  only  way  in  which 
I  can  explain  the  fact  that  Archduke  Charles,  after  he  became 
Emperor,  attempted  to  introduce  into  the  court  an  atmo- 
sphere which  was  doubtless  appropriate  and  homely  enough 
for  the  officers'  mess  of  a  cavalry  regiment — an  absurdity  which 
proved  the  more  disastrous  in  its  consequences  from  the  fact 
that  the  young  Emperor  did  not  confine  himself  to  intro- 
ducing these  innovations  into  the  immediate  entourage  of 
the  sovereign,  but  also  did  his  best  to  find  positions  there 
for  his  youthful  companions.  At  first  sight  a  harmless  policy, 
but  one  which  proved  very  dangerous  in  its  results !  As  it 
turned  out,  this  "  court  clique  business  "  at  once  proved 
detrimental  to  the  early  popularity  of  the  new  Emperor, 
and  the  national  affections  for  him  gave  place  to  hypercriti- 
cal judgment  of  all  the  ruler's  actions  on  the  part  of  large 
sections  of  his  people.  The  feeling,  erroneous  at  any  rate 
in  part,  that  only  "  friends  of  his  youth  "  were  of  any  account 
with  the  Emperor  Charles,  and  that  he  was  exclusively  under 
their  influence,  soon  made  the  public  suspicious  towards  their 
young  monarch.  During  1917  and  191 8  there  were  all  sorts 
of  unfounded  rumours,  most  of  them  being  exaggerated  and 
distorted,  imagination  being  allowed  full  play  as  a  rule 
unfortunately  in  a  direction  unfavourable  to  the  Emperor. 
But  it  sufficed  to  expose  the  public  activities  as  well  as 
the  private  life  of  the  young  Emperor  to  a  merciless  criticism 
which  was  no  longer  tempered  by  good-will. 

This  the  Emperor  Charles  was  not  in  a  position  to  face. 
In  the  first  place  his  short  career  as  a  ruler  was  not  in  any 
way  marked  by  success,  and  he  soon  reached  a  point  where 
only  the  trust,  affection  and  loyalty  of  his  people  could  have 
held  him  up.  This  development  is  all  the  more  regrettable 
as  neither  the  Emperor  Charles  nor  the  Empress  Zita  really 
deserved  their  fate.  In  the  moment  of  crisis,  however,  the 
people  threw  over  their  Emperor  with  rare  unanimity ; 
no  voice  was  raised  in  his  favour,  no  arm  was  lifted  in  his 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

defence.  He  was  simply  passed  over,  even  before  the  throne 
of  his  fathers  was  smashed  in  pieces. 

I  thought  fit  to  mention  this  at  this  point  because  the 
fundamental  causes  of  these  phenomena  are  to  be  found  in 
the  wasted  years  during  which  the  Archduke  Charles  was 
devoting  himself  to  mechanical,  superficial  squadron  work. 
They  came  at  that  stage  of  his  development  when  his  mind 
was  most  impressionable,  his  character  most  plastic,  his 
whole  personality  ready  to  be  moulded  for  the  destiny  await- 
ing him.  Such  educational  needs  could  certainly  not  be 
supplied  either  by  the  officers'  mess  of  a  cavalry  regiment  or 
the  quarters  of  a  squadron. 

What  the  Archduke  Charles  missed  above  everything  else 
was  the  watchful  eye  of  a  father  ;  at  this  stage  of  her  son's 
development  his  mother  could  no  longer  supply  this  need. 
It  is  true  that  the  Archduke's  father,  the  handsome  Archduke 
Otto,  who  was  more  than  gay,  was  not  a  man  who  could  have 
been  trusted  to  exert  even  a  salutary,  and  certainly  not  an 
authoritative  influence  on  the  training  of  the  Archduke  Charles 
for  the  throne  ;  it  may  have  been  a  stroke  of  luck — as  not  a 
few  maintained — that  his  early  death  relieved  him  of  any 
chance  of  exerting  direct  influence  upon  his  son.  Those 
who  knew  the  Archduke  Otto  must  agree.  Any  influence  of 
his  on  the  career  of  the  Archduke  Charles  could  hardly  have 
been  to  the  latter's  advantage. 

The  Archduchess  Maria  Josepha,  w^hose  married  life  had 
not  been  without  its  trials,  devoted  herself  to  her  eldest  son 
at  that  time  with  the  tenderest  and  most  affectionate  solici- 
tude, and  this  the  Archduke  reciprocated  with  real  devotion. 
But  when  all  is  said  and  done  Maria  Josepha  was  only  a  woman ; 
she  could  therefore  influence  her  twenty-year  old  son  only 
indirectly.  Nevertheless,  it  was  due  to  her  initiative  and 
typically  German,  serious  view  of  life  that  the  Archduke 
Charles  had  the  opportunity  of  completing  a  thorough 
school  education  at   the  Schottengymnasium  in  Vienna,  and 

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The  Archduke  Charles 

later,  during  his  stay  in  Prague,  of  attending  the  University 
course  of  juristic  studies,  an  advantage  of  incalculable  import- 
ance to  an  heir  to  a  throne.  But  for  her,  such  an  idea  vi^ould 
probably  not  have  occurred  to  anyone. 

In  this  connection  the  question  necessarily  arises  :  What 
was  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  doing  all  this  time  ?  Did  he 
not  trouble  himself  at  all  about  his  great-nephew  and 
prospective  successor  ? 

The  Emperor  did  certainly  keep  an  eye  on  the  Archduke 
Charles.  But  during  his  childhood  and  early  youth  his 
father  the  Archduke  Otto  was  still  alive.  After  the  father's 
death  another  figure,  at  first  scarcely  noticeable,  but  gradually 
looming  larger,  began  to  come  between  the  monarch  and  the 
Archduke  Charles :  the  Archduke  Francis  Ferdinand.  And 
the  latter  was  the  direct  heir  during  the  not  inconsiderable 
period  from  1896 — after  the  death  of  Archduke  Charles 
Louis,  or  rather  from  1889  (after  the  death  of  Crown  Prince 
Rudolph)  until  1914.  The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph's  relations 
with  him  were  on  that  footing  only.  During  all  those  years 
he  could  not  think  it  likely  that  he  would  see  another  heir. 
This  in  itself  is  sufficient  excuse  for  the  Emperor  Francis 
Joseph  having  followed  the  career  of  the  Archduke  Charles 
with  no  more  attention  than  he  had  devoted  to  that  of  the 
other  Archdukes. 

The  Emperor,  oppressed  with  cares  of  state  and  bent 
under  the  weight  of  repeated  blows  of  fate,  could  no  longer 
bring  himself  to  intervene  directly  in  the  education  of  the 
Archduke  Charles,  quite  apart  from  the  fact  that  he  also 
had  no  time.  In  addition  to  this  we  know  that  the  Emperor 
Francis  Joseph  had  never  possessed  any  particular  aptitude 
for  educational  questions.  The  tragic  career  of  his  only  son 
is  sufficient  evidence  of  this.  How  could  it  be  expected  that 
at  his  greatly  advanced  age  he  should  succeed  in  doing  for 
the  Archduke  Charles  what  he  had  failed  to  do  for  the  Crown 
Prince  Rudolph  ? 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

But  even  if  the  Emperor  had  been  minded  to  take  special 
interest  in  the  upbringing  of  the  Archduke  Charles,  he  would 
not  have  found  the  task  an  easy  one,  for  it  is  certain  that  the 
Archduke  Francis  Ferdinand  kept  a  v^atchful  eye  on  the 
relations  of  the  Emperor  with  the  young  Archduke.  He 
actually  contrived,  at  any  rate  for  a  time,  to  keep  them  apart. 
This  finally  became  af>parent  to  the  Emperor's  suite.  Men 
immediately  began  to  associate  it  with  Francis  Ferdinand's 
presumed  intention  of  finding  some  way  of  bringing  his 
eldest  son,  Prince  Max  of  Hohenberg  to  the  throne. 

Such  a  conclusion  is  not  logical,  for  even  supposing  that 
Francis  Ferdinand  was  nursing  such  aspirations,  which  is 
far  from  being  established,  he  could  not  hope  to  realize  them 
until  after  the  death  of  the  old  Emperor.  It  would  have  been 
ridiculous  to  force  upon  the  sovereign,  stern  and  unbending 
in  all  that  concerned  the  ancient  traditions  of  succession, 
schemes  that  ran  directly  counter  to  these  and  were  there- 
fore certain  to  call  forth  his  grave  displeasure.  Such  a  pro- 
cedure not  only  would  have  done  Prince  Max  of  Hohenberg 
no  good,  but  would  have  been  seriously  damaging  to  his 
interests,  so  that  such  plans  would  from  the  outset  have  been 
dangerous  for  the  Archduke  Francis  Ferdinand.  I  do  not 
believe  for  one  moment  that  he  really  intended  to  put  his 
eldest  son  on  the  throne,  and  his  will,  in  which  all  arrange- 
ments for  the  succession  were  provided  for,  contained  the 
command  that  the  Duchess  of  Hohenberg  should  at  once 
be  officially  proclaimed  as  '*  Consort,"  and  the  Archduke 
Charles  as  "  Heir."  This  seems  to  give  the  lie  to  all  the 
rumours  connected  with  the  name  of  Prince  Max  of 
Hohenberg. 

It  seems  to  me  unnecessary  to  fly  to  such  obscure  motives 
in  order  to  explain  Francis  Ferdinand's  conduct.  All  that 
he  had  in  mind  was  that,  so  long  as  he  had  a  claim  to  the  first 
place  in  the  state  after  the  Emperor,  he  did  not  intend  that 
any  competing  influence  should  stand  between  them.     It  is 

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The  Archduke  Charles 

obvious  that  the  young  Archduke  Charles  could  have  been 
such  an  influence,  especially  as  Francis  Ferdinand's  mor- 
ganatic marriage  made  his  position  particularly  delicate. 
To  a  serious  and  solid  thinker  like  the  heir  the  best  course 
was  to  keep  Charles  and  the  Emperor  apart. 

The  result  of  all  this  was  that  the  Archduke  Charles  was 
for  a  considerable  time  a  stranger  to  the  Emperor's  personal 
suite  and  therefore  to  me. 

My  first  opportunity  of  observing  him  at  close  quarters 
came  during  the  grand  manoeuvres  in  Carinthia  at  the 
beginning  of  September,  1907.  During  these  and  the  Kaiser 
manoeuvres  of  1908  near  Veszprem,  and  in  1909,  at  Gross- 
Meseritsch,  the  Archduke  Charles — then  a  lieutenant  in  the 
7th  Dragoon  Regiment — acted  as  orderly  officer  to  his  uncle, 
the  Archduke  Francis  Ferdinand. 

On  this  occasion  I  was  very  favourably  impressed  by  the 
Archduke.  Slender,  tall,  and  lithe  in  movement,  he  had  in- 
herited the  admirable  figure  of  his  father,  the  Archduke  Otto  ; 
on  the  other  hand  his  features  bore  unmistakably  the  Wettin 
stamp  which  was  so  marked  in  his  grandfather.  King  George 
of  Saxony.  This  resemblance  was  inherited  by  the  Archduke 
Charles  through  his  mother.  It  had  run  in  the  royal  house 
of  Saxony  for  centuries  with  extraordinary  persistence.  I 
found  it  out  in  June,  1902,  when,  as  a  member  of  the  Emperor's 
suite,  I  was  present  at  the  funeral  of  King  Albert  in  Dresden, 
and  was  quartered  in  the  Taschenberg  palace.  Here  the 
halls  and  galleries  were  hung  with  a  vast  number  of  portraits 
of  Saxon  dukes,  electors  and  kings  from  ancient  to  modern 
times,  and  all  these  were  distinguished  by  the  same  heavy, 
almost  coarse,  features  and  meditative  expression.  It  was 
the  same  with  the  Archduke  Charles  though  in  his  case 
considerably  relieved  by  the  freshness  of  youth  and  the  bright 
blue  Hapsburg  eyes. 

The  fact  that  the  Archduke  Charles  at  the  Kaiser 
manoeuvres  was  merely  an  orderly  officer  jarred  upon  me,  for 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

the  Archduke  Francis  Ferdinand,  with  a  view  to  emphasiz- 
ing their  official  relations  would  shout  orders  at  him  in  our 
presence — orders  that  simply  meant  trivial  or  silly  errands 
to  various  headquarters.  The  whole  purpose  of  the  thing 
was  obvious,  and  gave  it  the  air  of  a  military  farce.  That  the 
part  should  be  played  by  the  future  bearer  of  the  Hapsburg 
imperial  crown,  and  that  before  spectators,  displeased  me. 
I  hinted  to  the  Aide-de-Camp  of  the  Archduke  Francis 
Ferdinand,  Major  von  Brosch-Aarenau,  that  it  would  be 
better  for  the  Archduke  Charles  to  be  attached  to  the 
manoeuvre  Headquarters  Staff,  so  that  he  could  get  a  broad 
view  of  the  way  these  affairs  were  conducted.  Major  von 
Brosch,  however,  did  not  fall  in  with  my  idea.  He  thought 
that  the  Archduke  Charles  had  as  yet  hardly  sufficient  grasp 
for  this  and  ought  to  content  himself  for  the  time  being  with 
humbler  duties.  Altogether  Major  von  Brosch  did  not 
speak  very  favourably  of  the  Archduke  Charles  and  complained, 
among  other  things,  that  he  was  too  fond  of  indulging  in 
jeering  comments  and  sarcastic  criticisms  about  those  with 
whom  he  came  in  contact. 

"  Of  course  they  are  not  meant  seriously  or  maliciously," 
concluded  Major  von  Brosch ;  "  but  it  will  be  a  good  thing 
for  the  Archduke  to  stay  with  us  for  the  present,  so  that  we 
can  quickly  get  him  out  of  these  bad  habits." 

In  the  summer  of  1909  the  Archduke  Charles  was  visiting 
Franzensbad,  where  Princess  Zita,*  one  of  the  many  children 

*  This  name  Is  extremely  uncommon  in  Germany.  It  is,  in  fact,  a  genuine 
Italian  name  and  particularly  popular  among  the  peasantry  of  Lucca.  It  is  virtually 
nothing  more  than  an  abbreviation  of  the  Latin  word  tacita^  the  "  peaceful,"  or 
"  silent." 

In  the  twelfth  century  a  certain  poor  peasant  girl  living  near  Lucca  had  become 
BO  prominent  through  her  piety  and  untiring  devotion  to  good  works  that  after  her 
death  she  was  universally  revered  as  a  saint.  She  was  called  Zita,  perhaps  on  account 
of  her  modest  appearance  and  quiet  ways.  She  was  subsequently  regarded  through- 
out the  western  portion  of  central  Italy  as  the  patron  saint  of  female  servants. 

Be  that  as  it  may,  It  says  something  for  the  genuine  piety  and  natural  simplicity 
of  the  Duke  and  Duchess  of  Parma  that  they  had  their  daughter  christened  with  the 
name  of  a  serving-maid. 


The  Archduke  Charles 

of  the  Duchess  Maria  Antonia  of  Parma,  and  at  that  time 
seventeen  years  old,  was  also  staying  as  the  guest  of  the  Arch- 
duchess Maria  Annunziata.  The  Duchess  was  a  widow,  her 
husband,  Duke  Robert,  having  died  on  the  i6th  November, 
1907.  The  Bourbon  Princess  Zita  was  born  at  Pianove  castle 
at  Lucca  on  the  9th  May,  1892.  Her  personality  was  a 
happy  combination  of  Italian  vivacity  with  German  train- 
ing, and  the  Archduke  Charles  was  at  once  attracted  by 
her. 

But  it  was  not  until  the  Court  ball  at  the  Hofburg  in 
Vienna  that  the  Archduke  Charles  openly  avowed  his  affection 
for  Princess  Zita,  and  as  both  his  mother,  the  Archduchess 
Maria  Josepha,  and  the  Archduchess  Maria  Theresa,  the 
widow  of  the  Archduke  Charles  Louis  and  sister  of  the  Duchess 
of  Parma,  did  their  best  to  encourage  the  match,  the  betrothal 
of  the  Archduke  Charles  to  Princess  Zita  of  Parma  took  place 
on  the  14th  June,  191 1. 

At  this  time  the  Emperor,  who  was  suffering  from  severe 
bronchial  catarrh,  was  seeking  a  much  needed  rest  at  the 
Hermes  Villa  in  the  Lainz  Tiergarten.  Thither  the  Arch- 
duchess Maria  Josepha  hurried  to  bear  the  news  of  her 
son's  betrothal.  The  Emperor  was  surprised  and  not  too 
pleased  at  this  event  which  had  been  brought  about  by  the 
ladies  of  his  family,  but  finding  himself  faced  with  an  accom- 
plished fact,  he  had  no  choice  but  to  give  his  consent.  Count 
Paar  had  thought  that  the  Emperor  had  more  ambitious 
plans  for  the  Archduke  Charles,  and  indeed  rumours  to  this 
effect  were  circulating.  What  had  caused  the  Emperor 
special  anxiety  was  the  fact  that  the  family  of  the  late  Duke 
of  Parma  had  included  several  feeble-minded  children — by  the 
first  marriage,  it  is  tru4  Also  the  fact  that  Princess  Zita 
belonged  to  a  deposed  Italian  royal  house  did  not  strike  the 
Emperor  as  a  good  augury.  But  after  all,  it  was  an  equal 
marriage  which  the  Archduke  Charles  was  contemplating  ; 
this  consideration  helped  the  Emperor,  who  had  gone  through 

153 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

so  much  bitter  disappointment  in  this  respect,  to  overlook 
these  objections. 

Henceforth  the  preparations  for  the  marriage  were 
hurried  on  and  it  took  place  on  the  21st  October,  191 1,  at 
the  castle  of  Schwarzau  am  Steinfelde  (Wiener-Neustadt),  the 
Austrian  seat  of  the  Duchess  of  Parma.  The  Emperor 
Francis  and  King  Frederick  August  III.  of  Saxony,  uncle 
of  the  Archduke  Charles,  were  present.  During  the  taking 
of  some  group  photographs  of  the  guests  after  the  wedding 
banquet  the  Emperor,  whom  no  one  thought  of  covering 
with  a  cloak,  caught  a  severe  chill,  bringing  on  a  serious 
attack  of  bronchitis  from  which  he  did  not  recover  until  the 
following  summer.  Feverish  and  coughing,  he  returned  to 
Schonbrunn  where  his  malady  grew  so  much  worse  during  the 
autumn  that  his  life  was  feared  for.  Often  in  his  painful 
struggles  for  breath  the  Emperor  would  burst  out :  "  Oh, 
that  wretched  day  at  Schwarzau  !  " 

On  the  1st  November,  191 2,  the  Archduke  Charles  was 
gazetted  major  in  the  39th  Hungarian  Infantry  Regiment. 
This  unit  was  stationed  in  the  old  barracks  in  Mariahilfe- 
strasse,  Vienna.  This  brought  the  Archduke  and  his  young 
bride  to  the  imperial  capital  where  for  a  time  public  attention 
was  focussed  upon  them. 

The  Emperor  assigned  to  his  grand-nephew  as  a  residence 
the  small  but  beautiful  castle  of  Hetzendorf,  not  far  from 
Schonbrunn,  which  thus  became  a  centre  of  court  society. 
This  proximity  naturally  drew  the  Emperor  into  closer 
personal  relations,  not  only  with  the  Archduke  Charles  but 
also  with  his  wife.  He  allowed  the  Archduke  to  represent 
him  on  manv  occasions  and  entrusted  him  with  missions 
which  seemed  to  call  for  the  services  of  one  of  his  nearest 
relations. 

It  was  all  to  the  good  that  during  their  sojourn  at  Het- 
zendorf Castle,  only  interrupted  by  a  few  excursions  to 
Reichenau  or  Schwarzau  am  Steinfelde,  neither  the  Archduke 

154 


The  Archduke  Charles 

Charles  nor  the  Archduchess  Zita  courted  public  attention. 
Quite  the  contrary  :  the  archducal  pair  were  always  of  a 
retiring  disposition.  This  was  particularly  noticeable  in 
the  Archduke's  dealings  with  the  Emperor  and  contrasted 
agreeably  with  the  brusque  and  domineering  manner  which 
the  Archduke  Francis  Ferdinand  not  infrequently  adopted 
towards  his  sovereign.  So  it  came  about  that  the  Archduke 
and  his  charming  wife  endeared  themselves  more  and  more, 
not  only  to  the  Emperor  but  also  to  his  suite,  and  soon  after- 
wards to  the  population  of  the  imperial  capital.  What 
appealed  particularly  to  the  Emperor  in  his  lonely  old  age 
was  the  atmosphere  of  family  affection  in  Charles'  home,  as 
serious  discord  had  for  many  years  embittered  his  own 
married  life.  The  family  life  of  the  Archduke  Francis 
Ferdinand,  although  no  less  happy  than  that  of  his  nephew, 
could  not  be  shared  by  the  Emperor,  for  in  his  eyes  the 
marriage  was  still  the  morganatic  match. 

About  this  time  I  had  my  first  audience  of  the  archducal 
pair  in  Hetzendorf  Castle  on  the  17th  March,  191 3. 

I  liked  the  choice  simplicity  which  distinguished  this  little 
court  at  Hetzendorf,  itself  a  residence  quite  on  the  small 
side.  Without  any  exaggerated  formality,  I  was  ushered  by 
the  chamberlain  into  the  presence  of  the  Archduke  and  his 
wife.  As  I  entered  the  drawing-room,  they  both  came  for- 
ward graciously  to  receive  me  ;  both  shook  hands,  and  the 
Archduke  at  once  invited  me  to  sit  down.  Their  action  was 
a  departure  from  the  official  etiquette  of  such  audiences 
and  gave  our  meeting  the  character  of  a  friendly  visit. 

I  was  particularly  gratified  by  their  both  showing  a  friendly 
interest  in  myself  and  my  family.  This  would  never  have 
occurred  to  the  Emperor  who  rigidly  avoided  even  the 
most  indirect  reference  to  the  private  affairs  of  those  to 
whom  he  gave  an  audience — unless  they  belonged  to  the 
highest  social  circles.  I  believe  the  Emperor  regarded  it 
as  derogatory  to  his  dignity  to  show  the  slightest  interest 

155 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

in  such  matters.  The  Archduke  Charles  and  the  Arch- 
duchess Zita  took  quite  a  different  view  and  soon  estabUshed 
personal  touch  with  those  whom  they  received. 

It  is  a  tragic  and  cruel  stroke  of  fate  that  these  two,  who 
showed  themselves  so  sympathetic  and  justified  the  highest 
hopes,  failed  so  completely  when  they  came  to  fill  the  place 
that  fate  had  assigned  to  them.  But  in  justice  it  must 
be  admitted  that  the  responsibility  for  the  collapse  of  the 
Austrian  Empire  does  not  lie  entirely  with  them.  I  shall 
always  remember  a  conversation  I  had  with  Dr.  Lammasch, 
the  eminent  professor  of  international  law,  in  the  summer 
of  191 8.  He  was  intimately  acquainted  with  the  Emperor 
Charles  who  often  resorted  to  his  political  acumen  in  questions 
of  difficulty,  especially  in  regard  to  peace  possibilities.  Dr. 
Lammasch  took  a  very  gloomy  view  of  the  future.  As 
early  as  191 7  he  did  not  conceal  either  from  himself  or  the 
Emperor  that  the  continued  existence  of  the  Austro-Hun- 
garian  Empire  would  be  seriously  endangered  unless  peace 
were  immediately  concluded,  even  if  a  refusal  on  the  part 
of  Germany  to  follow  suit  involved  the  disruption  of  the 
alliance.  This  attitude  drew  down  upon  Lammasch  the 
violent  hatred  and  lasting  enmity  of  the  German  political 
circles  in  the  empire,  though  subsequent  events  have  clearly 
shown  that  he  was  right. 

Lammasch's  experience  brought  him  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  Emperor  Charles,  though  inspired  by  the  best  in- 
tentions, was  quite  unfitted  by  character  to  deal  with  the 
stormy  events  of  the  times. 

"  The  times  are  too  great  for  him  !  "  said  Lammasch  in 
the  course  of  the  conversation  :  "  The  Emperor  is  too  good- 
natured,  too  simple,  too  human.  He  does  not  trust  himself 
to  use  his  authority,  and  boldly  act  the  part  of  traitor  to-day 
to  his  country  in  order  that  he  may  be  her  saviour  to-morrow." 

It  is  interesting,  too,  that  after  the  collapse  of  the  Danube 
Empire  Dr.  Lammasch  often  drew  a  parallel  between  the 

156 


The  Archduke  Charles 

Emperor  Charles  and  King  Charles  I.  of  England.  He 
thought  there  was  a  striking  similarity  between  the  two 
monarchs.  It  was  not  merely  that  they  both  happened  to 
have  the  same  name  and  Bourbon  wives.  There  were  the 
further  facts  that  both  reigned  during  mighty  upheavals  in 
Europe  (the  Thirty  Years'  War  in  the  case  of  Charles  I.  of 
England)  and  both  were  ultimately  brought  to  ruin  by 
internal  dissensions. 

I  confess  I  did  not  think  the  comparison  really  apt.  When 
Lammasch  brought  it  up  once  more  I  pointed  out  that  our 
Emperor  Charles  was  distinguished  by  his  unassuming 
simplicity  and  real  kindness  of  heart,  whereas  it  seemed  to  me 
Charles  I.  of  England  was  and  remained  simply  an  aristocratic 
grand  seigneur.  I  drew  another  fundamental  distinction 
between  the  two  monarchs.  The  Emperor  Charles  stuck 
to  his  friends  and  confidants  with  a  fierce  loyalty  which 
perhaps  was  not  infrequently  ill-timed.  Charles  I.  of  England 
abandoned  and  sacrificed  his  friends  with  pitiless  and  quite 
repulsive  indifference  whenever  it  suited  his  purpose  to  do 
so.     One  need  only  consider  the  cases  of  Strafford  and  Laud. 

All  Lammasch  could  reply  was  :  "  Anyhow  Charles  L 
of  England  perished  while  his  country  survived.  With  us 
it  was  the  other  way  round  !     Which  do  you  prefer  ?  " 

I  answered  with  another  question  :  "  But  can  anyone 
say  that  the  Emperor  Charles  was  wholly  and  solely  responsible 
for  the  collapse  of  the  Danube  Monarchy  ?  " 

Dr.  Lammasch  did  not  reply. 

These  reflections  have  carried  me  very  far  from  my  real 
subject.  I  must  return  to  it,  and  more  particularly  the 
period  in  which  the  Archduke  Charles  resided  in  Vienna. 

It  proceeded  on  famiHar  hnes  of  domestic  bliss  until 
that  28th  June,  1914,  on  which  the  Archduke  was  suddenly 
thrust  into  the  foreground  of  events  and  found  himself  at 
his  great-uncle*s  side.  On  May  i,  191 4,  he  was  promoted 
to   lieutenant-colonel  in  the  39th  Infantry  Regiment  and  on 

157 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

the  following  August  l  the  Emperor  made  him  colonel  of 
the  1st  Hussars,  which  bore  its  sovereign's  name.  In  this 
capacity  he  accompanied  the  Commander-in-Chief,  the 
Archduke  Frederick,  to  Przemysl,  Neusandec  and  Teschen. 
It  is  very  hard  to  say  what  impressions  the  Archduke  gathered 
from  his  experiences  at  the  side  of  the  supreme  commander 
in  the  field,  and  whether  they  promoted  his  intellectual 
development  and  helped  to  mature  his  judgment.  It  is 
certain  that  he  was  not  particularly  edified  by  what  he  saw 
of  headquarters  and  its  work.  I  learned  that  myself  from 
his  own  lips. 

He  was  not  altogether  satisfied  with  the  peculiar  position 
of  the  Archduke  Frederick  and  his  virtually  nominal  powers. 
It  was  natural  that  the  young  heir  should  think  Frederick 
had  all  the  limelight,  though  he  was  really  a  victim  of  his  un- 
questioning obedience  to  the  Emperor  and  probably  himself 
realized  what  a  disagreeable  part  he  had  to  play  at  army 
headquarters.  That  he  played  it  without  flinching  is  a 
monument  to  his  strong  sense  of  duty.  Some  time  later, 
when  the  Archduke  Charles  was  emperor,  he  was  subsequently 
relieved  of  his  functions  as  Commander-in-Chief  in  a  fashion 
which  could  hardly  be  called  flattering.  He  naturally  felt 
he  had  been  badly  treated. 

At  the  end  of  1914  the  Archduke  came  into  really  close 
touch  with  the  Emperor,  and  the  latter  decided  to  discuss 
both  military  and  political  affairs  with  him  as  a  regular  thing. 

It  was  the  Empress  Zita  who  unconsciously  brought 
about  the  helpful  and  intimate  co-operation  between  the  old 
sovereign  and  his  young  heir. 

When  the  Archduke  went  to  headquarters  the  Arch- 
duchess and  her  small  children  remained  behind  in  Vienna, 
where  she  divided  her  time  between  her  fixed  residence, 
Hetzendorf  Castle,  and  Schonbrunn.  As  a  result  of  her 
visits  to  the  Emperor  at  Schonbrunn  the  latter  saw  both  her 
and  her  children  every  day,  spent  a  little  time  with  them, 

158 


The  Archduke  Charles 

and  soon  took  them  all  to  his  heart.  In  those  serious  and 
exciting  days  it  was  both  a  comfort  and  recreation  for  the  old 
sovereign  to  pass  an  hour  or  two  in  the  company  of  the  young 
Archduchess  and  her  merry  family.  The  Emperor's  special 
favourite  was  the  little  Archduke  Francis  Joseph  Otto,  the 
Archduke  Charles'  charming  eldest  son.  There  is  no  clearer 
proof  than  the  fact  that  the  Emperor  enjoyed  nothing  so 
much  as  being  photographed  with  his  heir's  handsome  child. 

Another  result  was  that  when  the  Archduke  Charles  re- 
turned to  Vienna  from  General  Headquarters  from  time  to 
time,  he  immediately  came  into  close  and  continuous  contact 
with  the  Emperor.  Before  long  short  visits  no  longer 
satisfied  the  Emperor.  He  made  the  Archduke,  whom  he 
had  promoted  to  the  rank  of  Major-General  on  the  1st  August, 
1915,  join  him  once  and  for  all  at  Schonbrunn,  and  thereafter 
only  occasionally  sent  him  on  missions  to  General  Head- 
quarters or  other  high  staff  headquarters  at  the  front. 

The  Archduke  thus  began  to  take  an  active  share  in  the 
business  of  government.  Many  memoranda  from  the  mili- 
tary and  civil  cabinets  were  reserved  for  the  Archduke's  final 
revision  or  decision  in  the  name  of  the  Emperor.  The  latter 
was  relieved  of  some  of  his  many  tasks,  and  on  the  other  hand 
the  Archduke  was  given  a  chance  of  famiHarizing  himself 
with  some  of  his  future  duties.  Of  course  only  minor  depart- 
mental questions  were  left  to  his  decision  ;  not  problems 
of  any  great  difficulty.  Yet  even  in  this  subordinate  sphere 
he  revealed  that  unvarying  kindness  of  heart  which  without 
exception  inspired  his  judgment  of  all  documents  and 
proposals  put  before  him.  On  the  other  hand,  all  the  world 
could  S'^e  how  obstinately  Charles  adhered  to  his  preconceived 
opinions  and  how  difficult  it  was  to  convert  him  to  better 
ones  by  solid  argument.  As  a  rule  it  was  absolutely  impossible. 
In  the  Military  Cabinet  it  meant  that  while  the  Emperor 
could  easily  be  convinced  by  argument,  attempts  to  convince 
the  Archduke  always  failed,  however  great  the  effort. 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

It  was  particularly  in  departmental  matters  that  the 
Archduke  meant  to  show  that  he  intended  to  have  his  own 
way.  His  idea  was  to  prove  himself  a  "  progressive  "  and  to 
disregard  customary  formalities,  however  hallowed  by  age. 
As  a  rule  he  cared  little  for  expert  advice,  while  his  friends 
often  made  him  do  what  they  wanted  without  his  discovering 
the  fact.  Whereas  the  regular  and  formal  observations  of  a 
qualified  official  usually  had  no  effect  on  the  heir's  personal 
views  on  a  particular  matter,  it  sometimes  happened  that  a 
chat  with  some  of  his  friends  made  him  change  his  mind  at 
once. 

The  idea  of  a  "  friend,"  which  was  absolutely  unknown 
to  the  Emperor  and  had  small  weight  even  with  the  Arch- 
duke Francis  Ferdinand,  was  a  matter  of  the  greatest  signi- 
ficance to  the  Archduke  Charles  and  opened  up  unpleasant 
prospects  of  unofficial  advisers,  back-stairs  influence  and 
similar  phenomena.  It  was  in  these  days  that  I  began  to 
realize  that  it  would  have  been  advisable  to  remind  the 
Archduke  of  that  impersonality  and  objectivity  which  formed 
such  prominent  and  insufficiently  appreciated  characteristics 
of  his  great-uncle. 

There  was  still  room  to  hope  that  the  Emperor's  precepts 
and  example  would  still  have  a  certain  effect  in  that  direc- 
tion on  the  development  of  the  Archduke's  character,  but  I 
soon  realized — and  my  suspicions  were  confirmed  by  certain 
casual  remarks  of  the  Archduke — that  Charles  considered  his 
great-uncle's  views  and  methods  out  of  date,  in  many  ways, 
and  therefore  ripe  for  reform. 

It  was  his  friends,  with  whom  he  always  kept  in  close 
touch,  who  more  than  anyone  else  encouraged  that  view, 
and  the  consequences  were  in  some  ways  regrettable.  The 
Archduke  certainly  treated  the  empire  with  the  greatest  and 
most  genuine  respect,  but  one  could  not  but  feel  that  he  did 
not  agree  with  many  of  the  Emperor's  actions,  decisions  or 
commands.     In  fact,   one  could  read  his  thoughts  and   be 

i6o 


The  late  Empress  Elizabeth. 


[Facing  p.  i6o 


The  Archduke  Charles 

quite  sure  that  he  frequently  told  himself  that  things  would 
be  very,  very  different  when  the  wheel  of  state  came  into  his 
hands ! 

The  longer  he  remained  in  this  state  of  mind  the  greater 
became  his  desire  to  carry  through  the  projected  changes 
as  soon  as  possible.  He  worked  out  all  the  details.  His 
plans  had  already  assumed  fixed  and  tangible  shape  in  his 
mind,  and  when  the  Emperor  was  gathered  to  his  fathers 
we  saw  the  Emperor  Charles  introduce  his  reforms  at  hurri- 
cane speed,  without  considering  the  necessity  for  a  transi- 
tional stage,  and  thus  plunge  the  monarchy  into  disaster. 

The  development  of  this  revolution,  which  at  first  seemed 
as  sudden  as  inexplicable,  is  in  fact  perfectly  logical  and 
obvious. 

Not  less  so  was  its  first  manifestation  in  the  breathless, 
impatient  haste  with  which,  immediately  after  mounting 
the  throne,  the  Emperor  Charles  got  rid  of  all  the  counsel- 
lors and  confidants  of  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph,  however 
efficient  and  experienced  they  were  and  however  difficult  to 
replace.  They  were  the  representatives  of  the  old  system 
which  the  young  Emperor  regarded  as  effete  and  even  fatal. 
If  this  system  was  to  be  abolished  there  was  no  time  to  lose 
in  getting  rid  of  these  men. 

The  Archduke  Francis  Ferdinand's  intentions  with  regard 
to  the  future  of  the  monarchy  were  fairly  well  known,  and 
even  the  Crown  Prince  Rudolph's  political  views  were  not 
altogether  a  secret,  although  the  latter  had  had  no  immediate 
reason  to  concern  himself  very  seriously  with  the  many 
problems  of  the  Hapsburg  Empire,  as  at  that  time  his  father 
was  still  comparatively  a  young  man.  But  of  the  programme 
of  the  Archduke  Charles  practically  nothing  was  known.  I 
discussed  this  point  once  with  Count  Paar.  He  made  light 
of  it  and  simply  remarked  with  a  laugh  that  the  Archduke 
Charles  had  no  programme  at  all.  Once  on  the  throne  he 
would  be  incapable  of  any  more  enterprising  course  than 

i6i  II 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

that  of  letting  things  continue  on  the  old  lines  as  best  they 
could. 

"  And  that's  the  wisest  thing  one  can  do."  With  which 
words  Count  Paar  closed  the  discussion. 

That  was,  however,  by  no  means  a  true  reading  of  the 
situation. 

I  had  myself  from  time  to  time  heard  the  Archduke 
make  remarks  indicating  that  it  was  his  intention  to  reorganize 
the  Austrian  Empire  internally  as  well  as  to  change  the 
trend  of  her  foreign  policy.  The  first  part  of  this  pro- 
gramme he  intended  to  carry  out  on  democratic  lines,  while 
the  second  was  to  take  the  form  of  a  rapprochement  between 
Austria-Hungary  and  the  Western  Powers.  In  some  of 
these  schemes  the  influence  of  the  Archduchess  Zita  might 
be  traced. 

That  influence  began  to  make  itself  felt  immediately 
after  the  Archduke  Charles'  marriage,  and  when  he  ascended 
the  throne  became  patent  to  everyone.  For  that  reason 
many  people  are  still  inclined  to  attribute  the  long  succession 
of  mistakes  which  marked  the  two  years  of  the  Emperor's 
reign  to  the  perpetual  interference  of  the  Empress  Zita  in 
all  the  important  questions  which  claimed  the  attention  of 
the  young  ruler. 

I  have  already  said  that  the  Emperor  Charles  put  a  high 
value  on  the  views  of  his  friends.  The  same  was  true  of  those 
of  his  wife.  The  Empress  frequently  went  to  her  mother, 
the  Duchess  of  Parma,  and  her  aunt,  the  Archduchess  Maria 
Theresa,  for  advice  on  all  sorts  of  matters.  She  also,  but 
less  frequently,  consulted  her  mother-in-law,  the  Archduchess 
Maria  Josepha.  The  result  was  that  in  many  things  the 
Emperor  allowed  himself  to  be  guided  by  women  so  that 
individual  and  emotional  elements,  not  to  mention  purely 
momentary  factors,  played  an  outstanding  part  in  the  con- 
sideration of  practical  questions. 

The  most  remarkable  thing  about  the  Archduke  Charles 

162 


The  Archduke  Charles 

was  the  fact  that  while  he  attached  little  importance  to, 
and  even  considered  himself  entitled  to  ignore  information 
and  memoranda  sent  to  him  through  official  channels,  he 
was  inclined  to  treat  everything  he  heard  from  private  sources 
as  the  guide  to  the  line  of  action  he  was  to  pursue.  In  this 
he  was  the  exact  opposite  to  his  great-uncle. 

There  is  one  point  I  should  like  to  emphasize  here.  During 
the  whole  time  spent  by  the  Archduke  Charles  at  Army 
Headquarters,  and  later  at  the  Emperor's  side  at  Schon- 
brunn,  he  never  once  gave  the  slightest  hint  that  in  the 
case  of  his  becoming  Emperor  he  would  end  the  war.  I 
even  had  a  feeling  that  he  never  harboured  any  thought  of 
a  conclusion  of  peace  not  synonymous  with  the  final  victory 
of  the  Central  Powers.  The  Archduke  Charles  was  anything 
but  a  sabre-rattler,  but  neither,  in  my  opinion,  was  he  a 
partisan  of  peace  by  understanding.  At  any  rate,  if  he  ever 
said  anything  to  that  effect,  it  never  came  to  the  ears  of  the 
men  about  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph. 

I  must  certainly  admit  that  when  we  were  once  discussing 
this  topic  in  our  office  at  Schonbrunn  early  in  September, 
19 16,  Count  Paar  asserted  that  the  Archduke  Charles'  ideas 
about  the  war  were  extremely  pessimistic,  and  that  he  re- 
garded what  was  happening  in  Germany  as  mere  "  bluff  "  to 
save  the  situation  for  the  moment.  He  added  that  the  Arch- 
duke had  a  poor  opinion  of  both  Hindenburg  and  Ludendorff 
and  that  the  moment  he  mounted  the  throne  he  would 
immediately  break  away  from  Germany  and  somehow  find 
means  of  making  peace  at  the  first  possible  moment. 

This  seemed  to  me  a  very  odd  view  and  I  tried  to  get  to 
the  bottom  of  it,  but  found  no  sort  of  confirmation.  Quite 
the  contrary.  Lieutenant-General  Ritter  von  Marterer,  the 
Deputy  Chief  of  the  Military  Cabinet,  who  was  in  high  favour 
with  the  Archduke  Charles,  scoffed  angrily  at  such  a  notion, 
and  insisted  that  he  knew  the  Archduke  well  enough  to  be 
certain  that  when  he  became  Emperor  the  war  would  be 

163  II* 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

conducted  with  an  energy  hitherto  unknown,  that  the  whole 
resources  of  the  state  would  be  employed  and  it  would  be 
given  the  impetus  it  needed.  Marterer  described  the  Em- 
peror— and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  he  was  giving 
utterance  to  his  heartfelt  convictions — as  a  sworn  foe  to  the 
peace  idea  and  an  enthusiastic  supporter  of  the  association 
with  Germany  through  thick  and  thin  to  the  bitter  end. 

Could  one  have  better  proof  that  no  one  really  knew  the 
Emperor  or  had  any  notion  what  his  views  were  ?  As  a  matter 
of  fact  when  Charles  became  Emperor  he  took  neither  of 
the  two  courses  in  question.  He  chose  that  fatal  middle 
path,  open  to  all  of  us,  which  led  only  too  soon  to  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  Danube  Monarchy. 

The  period  of  probation  at  the  Emperor's  side  brought 
the  Archduke  Francis  Charles  promotion  to  the  rank  of 
lieutenant-general  in  the  spring  of  1916,  followed,  in  the 
beginning  of  May,  by  his  appointment  to  command  the 
20th  corps,  with  the  rank  of  cavalry  general.  Now  the 
Archduke  was  to  take  his  place  in  the  great  arena  face  to  face 
with  the  enemy  ;  this  was  considered  essential  in  the  interests 
of  the  dynasty.  Who  was  the  actual  originator  of  this  idea 
seems  of  little  importance,  but  it  is  certain  that  the  Emperor 
Francis  Joseph  did  not  at  once  approve  of  it  and  was  only 
with  difficulty  persuaded  to  consent.  He  gave  way  at  last, 
however,  when  General  Conrad,  Chief  of  the  General  Staff, 
also  urged  that  step.  With  him  it  was  a  question  of  at  last 
realizing  his  favourite  plan  of  a  great  offensive  against  Italy 
from  the  Tyrolese  eastern  frontier,  and  it  would  do  no  harm 
to  add  to  its  splendour  by  giving  a  leading  role  to  the  heir 
to  the  throne. 

The  Russian  break-through  at  Luck  and  Okna  soon 
brought  the  operations  in  the  south-western  theatre  to  a 
standstill  and  the  Archduke  Charles  took  over  the  command 
of  an  army  in  the  east  where  the  situation,  which  had  become 
very  precarious,  was  only  just  saved. 

164 


The  Archduke  Charles 

The  old  Emperor  took  great  pleasure  in  following  the 
promising  activities  of  his  great-nephew  in  positions  which 
were  making  great  demands  upon  him,  but  soon,  all  too  soon, 
the  Archduke  was  to  be  called  upon  to  face  vastly  more 
important  tasks.  The  thread  of  Francis  Joseph's  life  was 
cut  by  the  fates.  An  hour  or  two  earlier  the  Archduke 
Charles  had  come  to  Vienna  to  receive  the  old  Emperor's 
dying  blessing,  and  at  9  p.m.  on  the  21st  November,  191 6, 
he  became  Emperor  of  Austria  and  Apostolic  King  of  Hungary. 

The  figure  of  the  old  sovereign  who  for  so  many  years 
had  won  a  place  in  every  heart  was  now  suddenly  changed 
for  that  of  an  Emperor  and  King  in  the  full  bloom  of  youth, 
with  all  youth's  hopes.  Every  voice  in  the  Danube  Monarchy 
was  raised  to  acclaim  him  and  the  Emperor  Charles  could 
aptly  have  applied  to  himself  the  words  of  the  poet : 

"  Lorsqu'aux  yeux  du  peuple  que  j'aime, 
Je  celgnis  les  lys  6clatants, 
II  applaudit  au  rang  supreme, 
Moins  qu'aux  charmes  de  mon  printemps  .  .   ." 


165 


CHAPTER   VII 

THE    COURT 

''  I  ^HE  portrait  of  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  as  a  man 
-^  gains  in  clearness  when  it  is  detached  from  the  par- 
ticular background  supplied  by  that  narrow  world  in  which 
he  lived  and  moved.  The  narrow  world  in  question  was 
the  imperial  court. 

At  the  present  time  it  is  wholly  and  solely  a  thing  of  the 
past.  It  vanished  with  the  dynasty  and  nothing  else  was 
possible  or  thinkable.  The  only  traces  left  are  empty  build- 
ings, personal  property,  landed  estates.  The  institution  itself 
has  disappeared,  taking  its  spirit  and  atmosphere  with  it, 
not  to  mention  its  staff  of  officials. 

The  apparatus  which  was  known  to  us  from  our  child- 
hood as  the  "  court "  was  required  by  the  sovereign,  not  only 
as  machinery  by  which  to  exercise  his  authority  but  as 
ocular  proof  of  that  authority.  It  also  symbolized  the  his- 
toric splendour  of  the  imperial  house  because  from  small 
and  more  than  modest  beginnings  in  the  early  Middle  Ages 
it  had  grown  with  the  Hapsburgs  and  developed,  partly 
as  the  result  of  a  skilful  policy  of  aggrandizement  and  partly 
of  a  natural  evolution  which  always  followed  the  trend  of 
the  times,  into  that  awe-inspiring  creation  which  the  Austrian 
court,  the  most  brilliant  and  best  organized  in  the  world, 
became  during  the  long  reign  of  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph. 

To  the  generality  of  people  the  constitution  and  func- 
tions of  the  court  may  at  first  sight   have  appeared   fairly 

i66 


The  Court 

simple,  particularly  as  everything  went  so  smoothly  and 
automatically  for  the  guest  or  mere  spectator  that  it  was 
almost  impossible  to  believe  that  there  could  be  any  diffi- 
culties of  organization.  And  yet  the  remarkable  efficiency 
of  the  highly  complicated  mechanism,  and  the  necessity  of 
always  keeping  the  court  at  the  highest  possible  level,  demanded 
a  huge  apparatus  which  had  to  be  most  carefully  supervised, 
down  to  the  smallest  details,  and  required  watchful  eyes, 
orderly  minds  and  active  hands  to  keep  it  functioning 
properly. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  it  was  not  easy,  and  took  considerable 
time  and  energy,  to  get  any  kind  of  idea  of  the  complicated 
court  machinery.  How  much  harder  it  must  have  been  to 
keep  that  machinery  in  motion,  to  furnish  it  continuously 
with  the  necessary  power  and  see  that  its  multitude  of  parts 
were  always  in  order,  or,  if  not,  replace  them  at  once  so  that 
the  smooth  and  regular  work  of  the  whole  should  not  be 
imperilled  for  a  moment. 

All  this  called  for  first-class  controlling  minds — minds 
capable  of  welding  the  new  into  the  old.  This  task  was 
assigned  to  a  numerous  hierarchy  of  officials,  at  the  top  of 
which  was  the  Emperor  himself. 

From  him,  the  apex  of  the  pyramid,  ever  wider  stages 
descended  to  that  lowest  and  widest  level  which  comprised 
the  servants,  manual  workers  and  others  employed  at  the 
court  and  paid  daily  or  weekly. 

The  Emperor,  as  head  of  the  court,  was  in  direct  touch 
with  the  highest  court  officials  who  received  their  instruc- 
tions from  the  sovereign  alone  and  reported  to  him  personally, 
either  verbally  or  in  writing. 

These  highest  court  posts  were  reserved  for  members  of 
the  highest  and  oldest  nobility,  and  in  particular  there  was 
an  old  custom  that  the  Controller  of  the  Household,  the 
supreme  office  at  court,  was  the  preserve  of  a  princely 
family. 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

The  complexity  of  the  duties  entrusted  to  the  Court 
Ceremonial  department  can  best  be  shown  by  a  short  review 
of  some  of  the  ceremonies  which  took  place  from  time  to 
time  at  the  Hapsburg  court.  These  claimed  the  services 
not  only  of  this  department,  but  also  of  the  other  branch  of 
the  Controller  of  the  Household's  office  ;  the  Chief  Equerry's 
department  and  occasionally  the  department  of  the  Grand 
Chamberlain  ;  all  the  court  departments — as  far  as  possible 
— had  to  co-operate  in  order  to  ensure  the  perfect  function- 
ing of  the  whole  court  machine. 

This  was  the  principal  task  of  the  Court  Ceremonial 
department,  and  a  task  of  no  little  difficulty,  for  the  Emperor 
Francis  Joseph,  with  an  eye  quickened  by  an  experience 
extending  over  more  than  an  average  lifetime,  kept  a  keen 
look-out  to  see  that  all  court  ceremony  was  carried  through, 
not  only  with  faultless  precision  but  in  the  most  perfect  and 
distinguished  style.  The  Emperor  had  a  distinct  natural  flair 
for  these  formalities ;  his  judgment  on  questions  of  cere- 
monial, founded  on  the  deepest  knowledge  of  every  detail, 
was  regarded  as  final.  No  breach  of  the  traditional  court 
rules,  however  slight,  ever  escaped  him  ;  his  eagle  eye  at 
once  noticed  the  least  omission.  This  the  Court  Ceremonial 
department  had  to  bear  in  mind  which  made  its  duties 
particularly  arduous.  But  they  were  worth  doing  well,  for 
the  court  of  Vienna  had  the  reputation  throughout  the  world 
of  being  not  only  the  most  splendid,  but  in  every  way  a  model 
of  what  a  court  should  be. 

On  New  Year's  day  there  was  a  special  ceremony  of 
greeting  to  the  Emperor.  For  those  outside  the  family 
who  had  the  entree  to  the  court,  this  took  place  actually 
on  New  Year's  eve  between  8  and  lo  o'clock.  In  the  splen- 
didly lighted  state  apartments  of  the  Hapsburgs,  with  their 
wealth  of  carpets,  Gobelins  and  palms,  the  Controller  of 
the  Household,  supported  by  a  lady-in-waiting  acting  for 
the  occasion  in  a  similar  capacity,  personally  received  the 

i68 


The  Court 

New  Year's  greetings  for  the  Emperor.  This  ceremony 
was  attended  by  the  gentlemen  and  ladies  of  the  high  nobility, 
the  members  of  the  imperial  and  archducal  households, 
the  heads  of  the  ecclesiastical,  civil  and  military  orders,  and 
the  diplomatic  corps  attached  to  the  imperial  court,  as  well 
as  all  the  other  dignitaries  and  important  personages  of  the 
capital.  The  ladies  wore  evening  dress  with  jewels,  the  men 
wore  full  court  dress  or  uniform  with  orders.  Court  ushers 
took  the  names  of  all  arrivals  in  the  ante-chambers  and  these 
were  formally  announced  to  the  Controller  of  the  Household 
who  shook  hands  and  addressed  a  few  words  of  greeting  to 
each  male  guest  while  the  lady-in-waiting  invited  the  ladies 
to  sit  down  beside  her  for  a  few  moments'  conversation.  The 
bustle  in  the  state  apartments  during  these  two  hours  was 
increased  by  the  continuous  arrival  of  fresh  guests  to  replace 
the  outgoing  stream  of  those  who  had  already  paid  their 
respects  to  their  sovereign. 

On  New  Year's  day  itself  there  was  a  dinner  for  the 
members  of  the  imperial  family  at  the  Hofburg,  and  in  later 
years  at  Schonbrunn,  during  which  the  Emperor  enjoyed  a 
few  hours  of  relaxation  among  his  family.  Simultaneously  a 
court  banquet  was  held  at  the  Hofburg,  presided  over  by  the 
Controller  of  the  Household,  to  which  the  chief  officers 
of  the  court  and  other  high  dignitaries,  ministers  of  state 
and  the  civil  and  military  heads  were  invited.  These  ban- 
quets, which  took  place  at  the  same  time  as  the  family  dinners 
and  at  which  the  Emperor  and  members  of  his  family  were 
not  present,  were  known  as  "  Marschallstafeln,"  the  allusion 
being  to  the  fact  that  at  one  time  the  Court  Marshal 
represented  the  sovereign  as  host  at  these  functions. 

The  family  dinner  in  the  evening  of  New  Year's  day 
was  not  attended  by  any  of  the  members  of  the  Emperor's 
suite  ;  this  was  the  distinguishing  feature  of  these  occasions 
at  which  ordinary  evening-dress  was  worn  instead  of  court 
dress,  the  military  guests  wearing  uniform  without  swords. 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

At  other  places  than  Vienna,  however — for  instance, 
Budapest,  GodoUo  and  Ischl — it  was  customary  for  the 
suite  to  attend  the  family  dinner,  at  any  rate  those  who 
had  accompanied  the  Emperor  on  his  journey.  These 
dinners,  therefore,  stood  half-way  between  the  family  dinners 
proper  and  the  official  court  banquets. 

On  Fridays  and  fast  days  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 
the  Ecclesiastical  regulations  were  observed  though  the  pre- 
scribed dishes  were  strictly  confined  to  the  imperial  family, 
being  served  only  to  such  other  guests  as  had  previously 
expressed  a  preference  for  them.  Otherwise  the  guests  were 
served  with  the  ordinary  menu,  including  meat  dishes,  even 
on  fast  days.  This  distinction  was  made  clear  by  the  printed 
menus  at  each  guest's  place  ;  for  the  guidance  of  the  ser- 
vants and  to  avoid  any  mistakes  the  menus  of  those  who 
wished  to  observe  the  fast  were  printed  on  grey  cards,  the 
others  on  white.  This  custom  was  typical  of  the  Emperor's 
tactful  consideration  for  his  guests. 

State  banquets  were  a  thing  apart.  These  were  only 
given  during  the  visits  of  foreign  potentates  or  on  occasions 
of  particular  importance,  and  were  therefore  rare.  At  these 
banquets  the  court  displayed  the  greatest  splendour  of 
which  it  was  capable.  This  is  saying  a  great  deal,  for  no 
other  court  possessed  such  treasures  in  the  way  of  plate 
and  table  decoration  as  that  of  the  Hapsburgs.  All  this 
was  enhanced  inimitably  by  the  superb  manner  in  which 
not  only  the  tables  but  the  apartments  in  which  the  banquet 
Mas  held  were  arranged.  It  was  a  science  in  itself,  developed 
by  generations  of  experience  to  a  masterly  pitch  of  per- 
fection. 

At  these  state  banquets,  whether  at  the  Hofburg,  Schon- 
brunn  or  Budapest,  the  apartments  in  which  they  were  held 
were  adorned  with  a  profusion  of  unique  Gobelins,  priceless 
door-hangings  and  curtains,  the  choicest  palms  and  flowering 
plants     from     the    world-famed    court    gardens.     As    such 


The  Court 

banquets  were  always  held  late  in  the  evening  the  banquet- 
halls  and  ante-chambers  blazed  with  the  fairy  light  of  count- 
less electric  lamps.  The  table  itself,  covered  with  the 
heaviest  damask,  decked  with  the  most  splendid  flowers 
and  laid  with  the  famous  gold  and  silver  plate  of  rarest  work- 
manship, presented  a  picture  that  could  not  fail  to  give 
pleasure  to  the  most  eclectic  artistic  taste. 

The  distinctive  feature  of  these  state  banquets  was  the 
brilliant  company  of  guests.  The  ladies  appeared  in  even- 
ing dress  with  their  most  splendid  jewels.  Those  who  had 
the  right  to  decorations  or  orders  of  course  wore  them. 
The  men  wore  full  court  dress.  Whether  military  or  civil 
their  uniforms  were  richly  covered  with  glittering  orders. 
The  ribbons  of  the  Grand  Cross  were  worn,  as  befitted  the 
occasion  ;  the  military  officers  also  wore  their  medals,  which 
was  not  the  custom  at  other  court  banquets. 

The  order  of  sitting  at  table  was  carefully  fixed  according 
to  the  rank  of  the  guests  and  communicated  to  them,  with 
precise  instructions,  the  moment  they  entered  the  ante- 
chamber to  the  assembly  room. 

Music  was  supplied  by  a  military  band  or  the  court 
orchestra  which  was  placed  in  such  a  way  that  the  sound 
was  muffled  and  could  not  impede  conversation. 

At  state  banquets  the  staff  to  which  were  assigned  the 
duties  of  waiting  at  table  and  similar  functions  all  wore 
full  dress,  by  which  I  mean  scarlet  tail-coats  and  waistcoats 
with  gold  braid,  both  cut  in  the  old  style,  white  silk  knee- 
breeches,  white  stockings  and  black  patent  shoes  with  buckles. 
The  footmen  and  some  of  the  higher  members  of  the  house- 
hold staff,  who  did  the  actual  waiting,  had  powdered  hair 
or  white  wigs. 

At  state  banquets  the  Emperor  usually  gave  a  toast 
appropriate  to  the  occasion ;  the  speech  itself  was  prepared 
in  the  Ministry  of  Foreign  Affairs  or  the  Civil  Cabinet. 
When  the  Emperor  had  approved  the  wording,  the  toast  was 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

written  out  in  big  letters  suitable  to  his  vision  and  read  out 
by  him  from  the  fair  copy  during  the  meal,  usually  between 
the  second  and  third  meat  courses,  after  the  champagne 
glasses  had  been  filled. 

These  state  banquets  at  the  Court  of  Vienna  were  cer- 
tainly the  most  brilliant  and  illustrious  companies  which 
the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph,  universally  recognized  as  the 
supreme  model  of  distinction,  ever  gathered  about  him. 

At  other  court  dinners  the  function  was  somewhat 
similar,  though  the  guests  were  no  less  impressed  by  what 
they  saw. 

On  the  day  before  the  banquet  the  guest  received  an 
invitation  which  was  printed  on  a  stiff  card  in  accordance 
with  court  regulations.  Not  only  the  invitations  them- 
selves, but  even  the  order  of  sitting  down  at  table,  were 
always  passed  by  the  Emperor  himself  after  discussion  with 
the  Controller  of  the  Household. 

In  the  ante-chamber  to  the  assembly  room  the  Director 
of  Ceremonies  handed  each  guest  a  gilt-edged  card  (these 
cards  were  red  for  one  side  of  the  table  and  white  for  the 
other),  on  which  the  places  at  table  were  lithographed. 
Another  official  showed  every  guest  a  plan  of  the  table  and 
indicated  exactly  where  he  was  to  sit  and  how  to  reach  his 
place. 

Thus  it  was  quite  easy  to  find  one's  place  at  once  on 
entering  the  banqueting-room.  Every  cover  had,  in  addition 
to  its  service,  napkin  and  roll  of  bread,  a  printed  menu  and 
a  card  on  which  the  guest's  name  was  written  in  large  letters 
so  as  to  be  readily  visible. 

At  state  banquets  or  other  court  dinners  at  which  there 
was  music  by  a  band  each  guest  found  a  programme  which 
was  printed  on  a  card  like  the  menu.  These  cards  were  the 
finest  product  of  the  Viennese  paper  industry.  Each  had 
the  imperial  arms  embossed  in  gold  at  the  top. 

In  accordance  with  an  old  custom  at  the  Hapsburg  court, 

172 


The  Court 

the  menus  were  always  in  French.  As  a  rule  the  wines 
were  not  included.  The  only  exception  was  in  the  case  of 
special  court  dinners  and  state  banquets. 

At  the  ordinary  family  dinners  the  servants  wore  the 
so-called  "  campaign  "  uniform,  i.e.,  a  brown,  gold-braided 
coat  and  long  black  trousers,  and  carried  a  dress  sword.  The 
footmen  wore  the  old-style  tail-coat  and  vest,  edged  with 
silver  braid,  black  knee-breeches  and  gaiters  of  the  same  colour 
as  the  coat. 

The  Emperor  was  served  by  his  loaders,  who  usually  wore 
a  green  uniform,  long  green  trousers,  both  with  silver  braid, 
and  a  broad  silver  bandolier  without  the  hunting-knife. 

During  dinner  conversation  was  carried  on  in  subdued 
tones,  mostly  between  next-door  neighbours.  Thanks  to  the 
perfect  training  of  the  staff  and  the  pitch  of  efficiency  reached 
by  the  service  the  courses  followed  one  another  with  aston- 
ishing speed.  Sometimes  a  banquet  of  twelve  or  more 
courses  took  barely  an  hour.  The  minute  the  Emperor  rose 
from  table  all  the  guests  immediately  followed  suit.  The 
party  adjourned  to  an  adjoining  apartment  where  waiters 
and  footmen  brought  round  black  coffee,  liqueurs,  cigars 
and  cigarettes  on  salvers,  and  the  Emperor  chatted  with  all 
his  guests. 

At  family  dinners  and  the  very  similar  court  dinners  at 
Godollo  and  Ischl — frequently  at  Budapest  also — coffee 
and  liqueurs  were  taken  at  the  dinner-table,  but  the  company 
always  smoked  in  another  room — at  Godollo  in  the  drawing- 
room  leading  into  the  Emperor's  suite,  at  Ischl  on  the  terrace 
outside  the  banqueting-hall,  or  in  the  ante-chamber  when  the 
weather  was  bad.  The  gathering  after  dinner  at  Godollo 
was  particularly  homely,  especially  in  August.  In  the  huge 
but  simply  furnished  drawing-room  the  Emperor  would  drop 
into  a  chair  by  the  open  hearth  in  which  pine  logs  crackled 
merrily.  The  other  guests  sat  round  him,  and  before  long 
a  lively  conversation  was  in  progress.     It  often  lasted  an  hour 

173 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

or  more,  and  the  Emperor  was  at  his  best  with  interesting 
experiences  and  memories  from  his  full  and  eventful  life. 

I  have  given  this  fairly  detailed  description  of  court 
dinners  here  because  it  was  just  in  the  period  between  New 
Year's  day  and  Easter — therefore  during  Shrovetide  and 
Lent — that  several  of  these  affairs  were  given  in  rapid  suc- 
cession in  Vienna  and  Budapest,  although  there  was  no 
special  reason.  They  were  accordingly  called  Seriendiners. 
To  these  were  invited  court  dignitaries,  the  ministers,  the 
heads  of  the  Church,  the  army  and  the  civil  service,  members 
of  the  diplomatic  corps,  prominent  functionaries  of  public 
institutions  and  services,  leaders  of  the  artistic  or  scientific 
world  and  others  who  enjoyed  an  outstanding  reputation 
in  any  sphere.  Here  the  Emperor  had  an  opportunity  of 
meeting  them  personally  and  conversing  with  them  longer 
than  would  have  been  possible  at  the  general  audiences. 

Shrovetide  was  distinguished  in  another  respect  by  the 
court  balls,  which  took  place  every  year  in  Vienna  and 
Budapest. 

In  Vienna  the  scene  of  action  was  the  Hofburg,  and 
there  were  two  balls  in  each  carnival  season.  The  first  of 
these  was  the  "  Court  Ball,"  the  second  the  "  Ball  at  Court." 
In  its  way  the  first  was  the  more  brilliant.  A  host  of  invita- 
tions was  issued,  for  as  regards  the  men  the  very  fact  of 
possessing  an  Austrian  order  involved  the  possibility  of  an 
invitation.  In  the  case  of  ladies  the  standard  was  consider- 
ably higher  and  associated  with  that  famous  "  Hoffahigkeit,"* 
which  could  only  be  given  by  noble  birth,  the  outstanding 
position  of  the  husband  or  some  other  claim  to  precedence. 
The  diplomatic  corps  had  the  further  right  of  proposing  for 
an  invitation  members  of  their  own  nation  of  corresponding 
social  qualifications  who  happened  to  be  in  Vienna  at  the 
time.     These  were  known  as  "  distinguished  strangers." 

The  "  Ball  at  Court  "  was  more  intime — the  number  of 

*  The  quality  of  being  fit  to  be  received  at  Court, — [Tr.] 


The  Court 

invitations  was  far  smaller,  and  in  fact  restricted  to  those 
holding  a  special  position  at  court.  This  ball  was  held  in 
the  "  Zeremoniensaal "  of  the  Hofburg.  For  the  "  Court 
Ball,"  the  whole  of  the  spacious  assembly  rooms  of  the  Burg 
at  Vienna  were  used.  Another  difference  between  the  two 
affairs  was  that  at  the  "  Court  Ball  "  gentlemen  wore  full 
dress  uniform  and  all  their  orders,  foreign  as  well  as  national, 
whereas  at  the  "  Ball  at  Court  "  court  dress  was  de  rigueur 
and  Austro-Hungarian  decorations  alone  were  worn. 

The  Court  Ball  at  Budapest  ranked  between  the  Vienna 
Court  Ball  and  the  "  Ball  at  the  Court."  In  the  Hungarian 
capital  the  invitations  to  the  Court  Ball  were  also,  of  course, 
strictly  limited,  but  full  court  uniform  and  all  orders  were 
worn. 

The  court  balls  presented  a  fabulous  picture  of  brilliance 
and  splendour.  One  never  tired  of  watching  the  splendid 
dresses  of  the  ladies,  with  their  jewels,  worth  millions,  the 
varied  display  of  uniforms  covered  with  stars  and  crosses, 
the  subdued  but  magnificent  robes  of  the  princes  of  the 
Church,  the  court  dress  of  the  Hungarian  and  Polish  mag- 
nates, the  endless  variety  of  uniforms  worn  by  diplomats 
from  every  part  of  the  world.  The  picture,  flooded  with 
light  from  lamps  of  every  size,  was  framed  by  the  wonder- 
fully decorated  rooms  with  their  wealth  of  palms,  foliage 
and  flowers  to  delight  and  refresh  the  dazzled  eye. 

When  the  court  entered  the  great  ball-room — led  by  the 
Emperor  with  the  Duchess  of  Cumberland  or  some  other  lady 
of  the  highest  rank  on  his  arm — the  court  orchestra,  conducted 
by  that  brilliant  musician,  Maestro  Strauss,  who  was  succeeded 
by  the  celebrated  Ziehrer — played  some  introductory  music, 
which  was  followed  by  dance  music. 

Figure  and  other  dances  were  performed  by  the  ladies 
of  the  nobility  and  diplomatic  corps  with  the  officers  of  the 
household  and  young  men  of  high  rank  ;  the  most  brilliant 
of  all  was,  of  course,  the  cotillon,  favours  and  flowers  for 

175 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

which  were  supplied  to  the  guests  by  the  Imperial  Master 
of  the  Ceremonies.  Court  footmen  in  full  livery  con- 
tinually flitted  about  the  ball-room  and  adjacent  apartments 
with  refreshments. 

During  the  dancing  the  Emperor  passed  from  one  to  the 
other  of  his  guests,  and  the  untiring  diligence  with  which  he 
chatted  to  everyone  made  one  marvel  at  the  physical  energy 
of  the  aged  monarch. 

When  the  dancing  was  halfway  through  the  court  and 
higher  circles  moved  to  the  apartments  in  which  supper  was 
served,  while  the  remaining  guests  went  to  the  great  buffet, 
where  tables  arranged  in  horse-shoe  shape  and  attended  by 
court  servants  were  loaded  with  a  profusion  of  the  most 
inviting  delicacies ;  other  court  footmen  served  the  guests 
with  beer,  wines  and  champagne.  The  scene  in  the  buffet 
soon  became  very  animated,  the  conversation  gay  and  light- 
hearted. 

The  second  part  of  the  ball  did  not  last  long,  as,  after 
supper,  the  court  did  not  remain  long  in  the  ball-room,  with- 
drawing in  the  same  order  as  was  observed  at  the  beginning. 
Afterwards  all  the  rest  of  the  throng  of  guests  gradually  left 
the  Hofburg. 

In  addition  to  the  court  balls  at  Shrovetide  these  func- 
tions occasionally  took  place  during  the  official  visits  of 
foreign  monarchs,  though  only  in  a  few  exceptional  cases. 

During  Shrovetide  the  Emperor  also  attended  personally 
other  great  balls  of  outstanding  importance.  Among  these 
were  the  annual  "  Vienna  Town  Ball,"  at  the  Rathaus, 
which  was  one  of  the  most  brilliant  functions  of  the  season, 
the  balls  given  by  the  Foreign  Minister  and  the  heads  of 
the  leading  noble  houses — Prince  Lichtenstein,  Prince  Auers- 
perg.  Count  Harrach  and  others — and  those  of  the  foreign 
ambassadors. 

Ranking  with  the  court  balls  were  the  court  concerts. 
These  also  were  confined  to  outstanding  occasions,  such  as 

176 


The  Court 

visits  of  foreign  princes.  Musicians  of  world-wide  fame 
and  court  singers  appeared  at  these  concerts,  their  per- 
formances being  always  of  the  highest  quality  that  the  world 
of  music  can  offer. 

Here  it  is  necessary  to  mention  those  court  "  receptions  *' 
which  were  universally  known  by  the  name  of  "  Routs."  Their 
setting  was  not  unlike  that  of  the  court  balls  and  court  con- 
certs, excepting  that  at  these  functions  there  was  no  instru- 
mental music,  singing  or  dancing.  The  feature  of  these 
were  the  receptions  by  the  Emperor,  and  their  object  was 
to  afford  him  an  opportunity  to  get  into  personal  touch 
with  his  guests.  These  receptions  were  usually  held  during 
the  sitting  of  learned,  social  or  philanthropic  conferences, 
occasionally  too,  though  rarely,  during  the  visit  to  Vienna 
or  Budapest  of  foreign  potentates,  and  also  during  the 
Emperor's  official  visits  to  the  principal  towns  of  Austria- 
Hungary.  After  the  Emperor  had  conversed  with  the 
guests  they  were  ushered  into  a  neighbouring  apartment 
where  a  great  buffet  with  all  kinds  of  refreshments,  beer, 
wine  and  champagne  was  at  their  disposal. 

The  castle  at  Schonbrunn  contained  a  small  theatre — 
now  the  Schlosstheater  attached  to  the  Burgtheater — in  which 
at  important  reunions  of  the  imperial  family,  amateur  per- 
formances were  given  by  members  of  the  family  and  nobility 
in  the  presence  of  the  court  and  its  guests. 

Of  course  the  whole  organization  of  these  theatrical 
performances,  like  that  of  the  court  concerts,  apart  from  the 
actual  production,  was  in  the  hands  of  the  Court  Ceremonial 
Department  and  its  allied  departments. 

Considerable  demands  were  made  on  this  department 
on  the  occasion  of  gala  performances  in  the  court  theatres, 
such  theatre  pare  being  customary  during  the  visit  of  royalty 
to  Vienna  or  Budapest,  and  sometimes  during  the  Emperor's 
visits  to  the  chief  towns  of  the  Empire.  The  most  brilliant 
and   magnificent   of  all   these   theatres  -paris  were  given   in 

177  la 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

Vienna.  The  whole  of  the  wonderful  Court  Opera  House 
was  reserved  for  invited  guests,  to  whom  seats  in  the  boxes, 
stalls,  parterre  and  galleries  were  allotted  with  the  most 
meticulous  regard  for  precedence.  The  theatre,  brilliantly 
lighted  and  decorated  with  flowers  and  hangings  from  the 
palace,  which  formed  a  background  for  the  splendid  dresses 
and  glittering  jewels  of  the  ladies  and  the  gold-laced  uniforms 
and  court-dress  of  the  men,  was  a  wonderful  spectacle.  The 
Emperor,  with  his  royal  guests  and  the  members  of  the 
imperial  family,  took  their  places  in  the  great  royal  box 
facing  the  stage.  As  they  entered  the  whole  audience  rose, 
and  the  orchestra  struck  up.  The  subsequent  performance 
never  failed  to  realize  the  pitch  of  perfection  in  the  combina- 
tion of  arts.  Between  the  acts  all  kinds  of  refreshments  were 
handed  round  by  court  servants. 

There  were  different  degrees  of  this  thSdtre  pare,  according 
to  the  importance  of  the  occasion,  ranging  from  the  actual 
gala  performance  down  to  the  ordinary  royal  visit  to  a  theatre. 
A  most  original  performance  was  given  at  the  Court  Opera 
House  when  a  German  East-Asiatic  battalion  returning 
home  from  China  passed  through  Vienna  ;  the  whole  theatre 
was  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  officers  and  men  of  the 
battalion  who  were  entertained  by  officers  and  non-com- 
missioned officers  of  the  Vienna  Garrison.  The  Emperor 
and  Archduke  Francis  Ferdinand — both  wearing  the  uniform 
of  the  Prussian  2nd  Kaiser  Franz  Grenadier  Guards — 
watched  the  performance  from  the  private  box  adjoining  the 
stage,  and  were  several  times  loudly  cheered  by  the  almost 
exclusively  military  audience. 

The  gala  performance  at  the  Vienna  Court  Opera  House 
on  the  2nd  December,  1908,  to  commemorate  the  sixtieth 
anniversary  of  the  Emperor's  accession,  was  especially  note- 
worthy. The  brilliant  blaze  of  countless  fairy  lamps  revealed 
an  unusually  numerous  company,  in  which  all  that  the  Danube 
Monarchy  could  show  in  the  way  of  rank  and  social  or  other 

178 


The  Court 

distinction  was  fully  represented.  The  enthusiasm  reached 
its  climax  as  the  Emperor  took  his  place  in  the  great 
royal  box  among  the  members  of  his  family  ;  the  sovereign, 
wearing  the  red  and  white  full-dress  uniform  of  a  field- 
marshal,  with  the  glittering  stars  of  the  Austrian  and  Hun- 
garian orders — on  his  right  breast  the  dazzling  cross  with 
which  he  had  been  presented  that  morning  by  the  military 
and  naval  services  as  a  token  of  veneration — realized  the 
perfect  type  of  the  paternal  ruler  grown  grey  on  the 
throne. 

Following  the  calendar,  these  secular  Shrovetide  festivities 
lead  us  naturally  to  the  Church's  solemn  rites  of  Holy 
Week. 

These  too  had  their  special  features  at  the  Hapsburg 
Court ;  they  began  on  Holy  Thursday  with  the  "  washing 
of  feet."  The  Emperor  in  the  full-dress  uniform  of  a  field- 
marshal  performed  this  "  washing  of  feet  "  with  the  pre- 
scribed religious  ceremonial  in  the  great  "  Redoutensaal  " 
of  the  Hofburg  which  was  specially  arranged  for  the  occasion. 
Twelve  old  men  and  twelve  old  women  were  brought  from 
the  municipal  almshouses  of  Vienna — the  oldest  were  always 
chosen  for  this  purpose ;  the  Emperor  knelt  before  them, 
passed  from  one  to  the  other  and  touched  their  bare  right 
foot  with  a  napkin  dipped  in  water  from  a  golden  basin, 
while  a  priest  read  aloud  the  Gospel  for  the  day  in  which  the 
New  Testament  scene  is  described.  It  was  a  touching  ceremony 
and  made  a  lasting  impression  on  the  spectators  who  were  ad- 
mitted by  cards  obtained  from  the  Controller  of  the  House- 
hold. After  the  Emperor  and  Court  had  withdrawn  the  old 
people  were  handsomely  rewarded  and  driven  back  to  the 
almshouses  in  royal  carriages. 

On  Good  Friday  the  service  of  the  Entombment  was  read 
in  the  Hofburg  Chapel  in  the  presence  of  the  Emperor,  after 
which  the  Host  was  carried  by  the  Court  Chaplain  in  solemn 
procession  to  the  Holy  Tomb,  which  was  at  the  Bellaria  end 

179  '        12* 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

of  the  KontroUor  gallery.  On  these  occasions  the  Emperor 
always  wore  the  uniform  of  Colonel-in-Chief  of  the  8th 
Austro-Hungarian  Field  Artillery  Regiment.  No  one  could 
ever  explain  to  me  the  reason  for  this,  so  I  asked  the  Emperor 
himself  who  replied  that  he  thought  this  his  most  subdued, 
least  elaborate  uniform  and  therefore  most  appropriate  to 
the  occasion.  In  these  processions  the  Emperor  walked 
immediately  behind  the  canopy  covering  the  Host,  followed 
by  the  archdukes.  The  route  was  lined  by  the  imperial 
body-guard,  and  the  choir  of  the  court  chapel,  walking  before 
the  canopy,  chanted  Church  music.  It  was  a  simple  and 
solemn  ceremony,  and  the  reverence  which  marked  it  gave 
it  a  special  appeal. 

After  the  Entombment,  the  public  were  admitted  to  the 
Joseph  Chapel  during  Good  Friday  and  the  following  day, 
and  a  continuous  stream  visited  the  Holy  Tomb  to  offer 
prayers  at  its  foot.  In  the  afternoon  of  Saturday  in  Holy 
Week  came  the  festival  of  the  Resurrection.  In  the  presence 
of  the  Emperor  and  members  of  his  family  the  Host  was 
taken  from  the  altar  at  the  Tomb  in  the  Joseph  Chapel  and 
borne  in  solemn  procession  to  the  Court  Chapel.  In  favour- 
able weather  it  would  pass  through  the  inner  courtyard  of 
the  castle,  otherwise  along  the  KontroUor  gallery  as  on  Good 
Friday.  During  my  seventeen  years  in  the  Aides-de-Camp's 
Department  it  was  only  once  possible  for  the  procession  to 
use  the  inner  courtyard  ;  the  climate  of  Vienna  is  too  bleak 
to  allow  of  such  ceremonies  in  the  open  air  so  early  as  Easter, 
especially  as  it  was  necessary  to  bear  in  mind  the  Emperor's 
advanced  age  and  the  fact  that  he  had  to  walk  bare-headed 
in  the  procession. 

On  Easter  Sunday  the  Resurrection  high  mass  was 
solemnly  celebrated  in  the  Hofburg  Chapel,  which  was 
flooded  in  a  sea  of  light,  in  the  presence  of  the  Emperor 
in  full  dress,  the  archdukes  and  archduchesses  and  all  the 
highest    dignitaries   of   the   monarchy.     The   Papal  Nuncio 

i8o 


The  Court 

usually  officiated,  assisted  by  a  large  number  of  priests.  The 
orchestral  music,  choral  singing  and  first-rate  solo  singers 
contributed  to  make  this  high  mass  one  of  the  most  impressive 
ceremonies  at  the  court.  As  Easter  Sunday,  like  Corpus 
Christi,  had  been  appointed  a  festival  of  the  Golden  Fleece, 
the  Emperor,  as  Grand  Master  of  the  Order,  placed  an  offering 
of  twelve  gold  ducats  in  the  collecting-plate  handed  to  him. 
These  were  distributed  among  the  lower  clergy  present.  The 
Gengraladjutant  obtained  these  ducats  from  the  Emperor^s 
privy  purse,  and  handed  them  to  the  monarch  just  as  he 
entered  the  church. 

With  the  Easter  festivities  the  yearly  round  of  court 
ceremonies  generally  came  to  an  end.  The  exception  was 
the  celebration  of  Corpus  Christi  which  fell  in  the  late 
spring  and  provided  an  occasion  for  a  superb  display  of  both 
court  and  ecclesiastical  magnificence. 

First  thing  in  the  morning  the  Emperor  proceeded  from 
the  Hofburg  to  the  metropolitan  church  of  St.  Stephen  in 
a  state-coach  drawn  by  six  horses.  The  archdukes,  each  in 
a  coach  drawn  by  four  horses,  preceded  him.  It  was  a  sight 
which  carried  one  back  to  the  days  of  the  great  Maria 
Theresa !  The  coaches — a  blaze  of  glass  and  gold — the 
magnificent  harness  and  trappings  of  the  horses — magnificent 
creams  of  Spanish  breed — the  coachmen,  outriders  and 
grooms  in  their  black,  gold-laced  rococo  coats,  white  stock- 
ings, buckle  shoes,  and  wigs  under  their  huge  three-cornered 
and  two-cornered  hats  adorned  with  gold  braid  and  ostrich 
feathers — one  did  not  know  where  to  look  or  how  to  take  in 
this  unique  spectacle  ! 

The  Emperor  himself  wore  the  full-dress  uniform  of  a 
field-marshal,  with  the  ribbons  of  the  Order  of  the  Golden 
Fleece,  the  Order  of  St.  Stephen  and  the  Order  of  the  Iron 
Crown  (only  the  ribbon  of  the  Grand  Cross,  not  the  sash, 
was  worn  on  this  occasion),  with  the  stars  of  the  Grand  Cross 
of  the  Order  and  the  sash  of  the  Military  Maria  Theresa 

i8i 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

falling  from  the  right  shoulder  to  the  left  hip  (the  Grand 
Cross  of  this  order  and  that  of  the  Francis  Joseph  Order 
had  no  ribbon). 

He  was  an  object  of  universal  admiration  as  he  drove 
slowly  between  files  of  troops  across  the  Kohlmarkt  and  the 
Graben  to  St.  Stephen's  cathedral. 

There  he  was  given  the  royal  salute  with  drums  and 
trumpets  by  mounted  detachments  of  the  Arcieren  and  Hun- 
garian bodyguards  and  an  infantry  company  of  the  bodyguard 
drawn  up  facing  them.  In  solemn  procession  the  sovereign 
entered  the  cathedral,  accompanied  by  the  deans  of  the  order. 
He  proceeded  up  the  choir  to  the  epistle  side  of  the  high 
altar  where  the  Cardinal  Prince-Bishop  of  Vienna  celebrated 
high  mass  in  his  presence. 

This  was  followed  by  the  celebrated  procession.  It  was 
headed  by  the  Knights  of  all  the  Austrian  and  Hungarian 
orders,  in  order  of  rank  and  length  of  membership.  Next 
came  the  ecclesiastics,  with  the  Cardinal  Prince-Bishop  who 
carried  the  Host  under  a  canopy.  Immediately  behind  was 
the  Emperor,  bareheaded  and  carrying  a  lighted  candle. 
He  was  followed  by  the  Archdukes,  the  higher  dignitaries,  the 
Burgermaster  and  town-council  of  Vienna  and  several  cor- 
porations and  brotherhoods.  The  procession  wound  its  way 
through  Karntnerstrasse,  the  Neuer  Markt,  Augustiner- 
strasse,  the  Kohlmarkt  and  the  Graben.  Open-air  altars 
had  been  erected  on  the  Neuer  Markt,  Lobkowitzplatz, 
Michaelerplatz  and  the  Graben.  At  these  the  gospels  were 
read.  After  the  return  to  St.  Stephen's  the  benediction  was 
said  and  then  the  Emperor  mounted  the  state  coach  again 
and  returned  to  the  Hofburg  via  the  Graben  and  the  Kohl- 
markt. 

A  few  minutes  later  he  took  his  place  by  the  Franzen 
monument  in  the  inner  court  and  took  the  salute  of  the  troops 
as  they  marched  past.  Thus  ended  this  magnificent  and 
most  imposing  ceremony — a  ceremony   with  the  traditions 

182 


The  Court 

of  centuries  behind  it  and  one  of  the  most  impressive  sights 
in  the  world. 

As  a  rule  there  was  no  occasion  for  court  ceremonies  in 
the  summer,  if  only  because  the  Emperor  spent  the  hot 
months  at  Ischl  in  accordance  with  ancient  tradition.  The 
Emperor's  birthday,  the  1 8th  August,  fell  in  this  time  of  the 
year  but  it  was  essentially  a  family  affair.  Official  ceremonies 
at  the  Emperor's  summer  residence  were  always  avoided. 

On  his  birthday  the  Emperor  heard  low  mass  first  thing 
in  the  morning  at  his  villa.  Then  he  received  the  con- 
gratulations of  his  family  and  the  small  suite  which  accom- 
panied him  to  Ischl.  At  half-past  three  there  was  a  family 
dinner  in  the  imperial  villa  at  which  Prince  Leopold  of  Bavaria 
proposed  the  Emperor's  health,  whereupon  the  sovereign 
replied  by  emptying  his  glass  of  champagne  with  the  words  : 
"  To  the  health  of  my  dear  family  and  welcome  guests." 

The  Emperor's  participation  in  the  annual  grand  manoeu- 
vres marked  the  transition  from  the  summer  season  to  the 
autumn  and  winter  seasons  and  involved  his  return  to  Vienna 
and  Schonbrunn.  Although  there  was  no  regular  succession 
of  court  ceremonies  before  Christmas,  there  were  always  some, 
each  of  which  had  to  be  regulated  by  a  special  programme 
appropriate  to  the  occasion.  The  very  size  of  the  imperial 
family  meant  that  christenings,  weddings  and,  unfortunately, 
funerals,  were  by  no  means  rare  occurrences,  so  that  there 
was  plenty  of  work  for  the  Court  Ceremonial  Department. 
The  Emperor  always  reviewed  the  necessary  arrangements 
personally.  Nothing  was  done  unless  it  had  been  previously 
approved  by  the  sovereign. 

The  Emperor's  state  functions  also  involved  court  cere- 
monies, if  only  to  give  them  the  necessary  Sclat.  I  might 
mention  the  receptions  of  the  Austrian  Reichsrat,  the  Hun- 
garian Reichstag  and  joint  delegations  of  those  two  bodies 
at  the  opening  of  the  sessions.  On  these  occasions  the 
Emperor  did   not  go  to   Parliament,   as   is  usual  in   other 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

constitutional  countries.  He  summoned  the  representatives 
of  the  nation  to  his  presence  at  the  Hofburg  in  Vienna  and 
the  Royal  Castle  at  Budapest. 

In  Vienna  members  of  the  Upper  Chamber  and  deputies 
assembled  in  the  Zeremoniensaal  of  the  Hofburg,  where  a 
throne  was  placed.  The  Emperor  entered,  accompanied 
by  the  highest  court  officials,  and  mounted  it.  In  his  full- 
dress  Field-Marshal's  uniform,  with  the  sash  of  the  Grand 
Cross  of  the  Military  Maria  Theresa  Order,  the  old  monarch 
made  a  splendid  figure.  He  put  on  his  general's  hat  with 
green  plumes  and  then  read  out  the  speech  from  the  throne 
in  a  loud,  clear  and  very  audible  voice,  bringing  out  the  more 
important  passages  in  a  rather  deep  tone.  Bodyguards  and 
dignitaries  stood  round  the  throne  from  which  the  monarch 
rose  at  once  and  retired  to  his  apartments,  accompanied 
by  the  court  officials  as  before. 

The  same  ceremonial  was  observed  in  Budapest  except 
that  the  Emperor  wore  the  Hungarian  field-marshal's  scarlet 
dress  uniform  with  the  frogged  white  cloak  and  the  Grand 
Cross  band  of  the  Order  of  St.  Stephen.  Around  the  throne 
were  gathered  Hungarian  bodyguards  and  dignitaries,  among 
them  old  Count  Julius  Szechenyi  with  the  sword  of  state, 
and  a  canon  who  held  the  great  apostolic  cross  of  silver  in 
his  green-gloved  hands. 

The  Emperor  never  failed  to  attend  in  person  the  military 
mass  for  the  dead  which  was  celebrated  by  the  Apostolic 
Chaplain-General  in  the  Church  of  St.  Augustine  in  the  first 
half  of  November.  It  was  a  memorial  service  for  all  those 
who  had  died  in  the  army  and  navy,  and  there  was  an  atmo- 
sphere of  reverence  about  it  which  was  particularly  touching. 
After  the  service  the  troops  marched  past  the  Emperor  who 
took  the  salute  under  the  Albrecht  steps  opposite  the  Mozart 
monument. 

The  Emperor  always  spent  Christmas  at  Schloss  Wallsee, 
near  Amstetten,  with  the  family  of  his  younger  daughter, 

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The  Court 

Marie  Valerie.  This  was  practically  the  only  leisure  the 
overworked  monarch  ever  permitted  himself.  Here,  among 
the  many  children  of  his  daughter,  he  gave  himself  a  little 
real  amusement  and  recreation.  He  always  took  part  in  the 
decoration  of  the  Christmas  trees  and  was  never  happier  than 
when  helping  to  distribute  the  presents. 


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CHAPTER  VIII 

FRANCIS  JOSEPH  AND  HIS  PEOPLES 

T  T  is  long  ago — during  my  early  childhood — since  I  first 
^  heard  the  Austrian  Empire  called  an  anachronism ; 
it  was  said  that  as  such  it  had  no  right  to  exist,  and  that 
only  the  personality  of  the  Emperor  held  its  tottering  structure 
together.  It  was  prophesied  that  after  the  Emperor's  death 
Austria-Hungary  would  collapse  like  an  old  barrel  from 
which  the  hoops  had  been  removed. 

For  decades  men  went  on  saying  the  same  thing  and  in 
19 1 8  this  prophecy  was  actually  fulfilled  before  our  eyes. 

But  how  is  it  possible  for  public  opinion  to  ascribe  to  any 
one  individual  the  capacity  and  above  all  the  authority  to 
hold  together  a  federation  of  states,  which,  according  to  many 
political  experts,  had,  strictly  speaking,  lost  its  right  to  exist  ? 
I  pondered  over  this  question  for  years,  and  only  very 
gradually  arrived  at  a  conclusion,  supported  by  a  mass  of 
details  personally  observed  and  retained  in  my  memory ; 
details  in  themselves  unimportant,  but  together  forming 
evidence  of  considerable  weight.  I  came  to  realize  more  and 
more  that  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph,  though  an  old  man 
by  no  means  gifted  with  outstanding  mental  faculties,  was, 
in  a  certain  sense,  if  not  the  only,  at  least  one  of  the  strongest 
bonds  that  held  together  the  structure  of  the  Danube 
Monarchy,  in  our  era  a  decayed  and  tottering  thing. 

The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  himself  never  dreamed  for 
a  moment — this  I  can  vouch  for — that  he  would  be  the  last 

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Francis  Joseph  and  his  Peoples 

of  his  line  to  end  his  days  on  the  Imperial  Throne.  Quite  the 
contrary  :  he  was  firmly  convinced  that  there  were  centuries 
of  progressive  development  in  store  for  his  dominions.  It 
was  just  this  complete  ignorance  of  the  tremendous  responsi- 
bilities which  weighed  down  his  aged  shoulders  that  alone 
gave  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  the  strength  and  courage 
to  cope  with  the  tremendous  mass  of  demands  which,  in  his 
eyes,  summed  up  the  lifework  of  a  sovereign.  It  is  obvious 
that  he  was  helped  in  this  by  the  unflinching  devotion  to 
duty  which  always  inspired  him  and  which  was  one  of  his 
life  principles.  Closely  allied  to  this  was  the  aloofness  which, 
from  his  early  youth,  he  had  regarded  as  the  prerogative  of 
his  royal  position. 

He  was  the  first  in  the  State. 

Not  in  the  same  sense  as  Asiatic  despots  or  Roman 
Emperors,  but  solely  by  virtue  of  his  natural  character,  a 
character  combining  all  the  qualities  of  a  first  servant  of  the 
state.  But  though  the  servant  he  was  always  and  everywhere 
the  first ! 

He  held  no  private  communications  with  advisers,  or 
even  friends — it  was  commonly  believed  that  he  never  had 
any  friends ;  he  held  himself  aloof  even  from  his  family. 
Everyone,  without  any  exception,  had  to  regard  him  as  the 
Emperor  and  nothing  else. 

It  was  just  because  this  attitude  admitted  of  no  exception 
and  Francis  Joseph  was  never  anything  but  the  sovereign — 
neither  more  nor  less — that  he  was  always  recognized  as  such 
by  everyone  and  accordingly  regarded  with  spontaneous 
respect. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  by  such  self-effacement  the 
Emperor  was  offering  a  real  sacrifice  on  the  altar  of  the  Austro- 
Hungarian  Empire.  His  attitude  was  all  the  more  praise- 
worthy because  it  involved  the  complete  absorption  of  the 
ruler  in  the  state,  a  fact  which  explains  why  everyone  bowed 
to  his  authority,  especially  when  it  was  known  that  the  laws 

187 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

made  by  the  people's  representatives  were  not  only  respected 
but  carefully  observed  by  the  Emperor  himself.  He  was 
always  extremely  careful  to  avoid  even  seeming  to  set  himself 
above  the  law.     Such  an  idea  never  entered  his  head. 

It  had  not  always  been  so.  In  his  youth  the  Emperor 
had  groped  in  the  darkness  for  a  long  time,  and  some  of  his 
worst  mistakes  had  been  made  at  the  most  critical  moments. 
These  experiences — generally  unfortunate — served  to  refine 
and  temper  his  character.  Like  all  of  us,  he  had  to  pay  his 
tribute  to  human  nature,  however  difficult  it  might  be  at 
the  time  and  w^hatever  bitterness  it  might  leave  in  his  soul. 
In  any  case,  the  trials  imposed  on  him  by  Providence  were 
more  severe,  the  disappointments  that  fell  to  his  lot  more 
bitter  than  ever  fell  to  the  lot  of  any  other  ruler. 

At  the  same  time  it  is  certain  that  none  of  the  blows 
that  fate  rained  upon  him  ever  really  touched  his  inmost 
being.  Towards  the  end  of  his  life  the  aged  monarch  stood 
in  a  position  of  complete  isolation  ;  it  almost  seemed  as  if 
during  his  last  days  the  world  had  forgotten  him. 

Be  that  as  it  may,  he  appeared  to  disregard  these  terrible 
blows  of  Fate,  his  more  or  less  avowed  enemy.  Even  in 
times  like  these  he  showed  himself,  in  the  fullest  meaning  of 
the  word,  the  true  sovereign,  never  thinking  of  himself 
when  the  prosperity  and  development  of  his  dominions  were 
at  stake. 

In  his  own  way  he  was,  doubtless,  a  whole  man  and  a 
great  man. 

I  say  "  in  his  own  way  "  because  throughout  his  life  he 
remained  simply  and  solely  the  director  of  an  unusually  efficient 
machine,  controlling  with  conspicuous  skill  and  with  an 
unusually  sensitive  and  patient  hand  the  vast  and  intricate 
mechanism  which  kept  his  Dual  Monarchy  in  action. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  he  may  be  regarded  as  one  of  the 
best  and  perhaps  the  most  remarkable  of  the  rulers  which 
the  ancient  dynasties  of  Hapsburg  and  Lorraine  have  ever 

i88 


Francis  Joseph  and  his  Peoples 

produced.  These  dynasties  have  always  been  poor  in  out- 
standing personalities,  their  representatives  for  the  most 
part  being  of  average  capacity  and  often  for  centuries  even 
below  that  standard.  Francis  Joseph,  undeterred  by  the 
vicissitudes  of  fate,  showed  himself  capable  of  rising  above 
the  usual  level  of  his  contemporaries. 

This  was  realized  by  his  peoples ;  his  very  devotion  to 
duty  made  it  clear  to  them,  and  in  return  they  regarded  him 
with  that  real  veneration  which  Napoleon  III.,  for  example, 
so  greatly  envied.     On  several  occasions  the  latter  remarked : 

"  Among  all  the  European  sovereigns  the  Emperor  Francis 
Joseph  is  the  only  one  who  is  cheered  by  his  people  even 
when  returning  home  after  an  unsuccessful  campaign." 

During  the  last  thirty  years  of  the  past  century  the  long 
period  of  peace,  combined  with  the  rapid  economic  develop- 
ment and  general  prosperity  he  was  thereby  enabled  to  secure 
to  his  peoples,  won  him  a  measure  of  affection  such  as  hardly 
any  of  his  predecessors  had  ever  enjoyed. 

But  even  in  this  "  happy  "  period  his  work  was  ever 
attended  by  an  inveterate  lack  of  luck. 

The  Emperor  realized  the  fact  only  too  well,  and  much 
sorrow  it  gave  him.  He  often  put  his  feelings  on  the  matter 
into  words  in  the  involuntary  exclamation  :  "  I  never  have 
any  luck,"  a  phrase  once  used  of  him  by  the  Austrian  Minister 
of  Commerce,  Schaffle,  during  a  conference  with  the  Em- 
peror in  the  spring  of  1871. 

At  the  close  of  the  Emperor's  reign  his  constant  lack 
of  luck,  so  momentous  an  element  in  both  the  great  and  small 
things  of  human  life,  swiftly  undid  all  the  good  derived  from 
the  progress  and  successes  of  the  tranquil  period  I  have 
mentioned.  For,  quite  unconsciously  and  still  less  willingly, 
he,  of  all  men,  was  fated  to  give  the  signal  for  that  appaUing 
world  struggle  which  has  just  struck  the  Empire  of  his  ances- 
tors to  the  ground  and  flung  the  twitching  fragments  of  its 
ancient  territories  to  the  winds. 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

How  could  Francis  Joseph,  whose  dearest  aim  was  the 
welfare  of  his  peoples,  have  let  loose  this  war  upon  the  world  ? 
Did  he  think  that  in  so  doing  he  was  acting  in  accordance 
with  the  aspirations  of  his  subjects  ? 

The  question  can  only  be  answered  by  those  who  have 
tried  to  realize  the  relations  between  the  Emperor  and  the 
mixed  population  of  his  Empire. 

The  aged  Monarch's  first  and  foremost  aim  was  to  treat 
all  his  subjects  of  all  the  nationalities  of  the  Danube  Mon- 
archy exactly  alike.  That  was  his  intention,  and  he  pursued 
it  honestly  and  resolutely.  It  is  impossible  to  doubt  or 
challenge  the  fact.  But,  of  course,  there  were  limits,  a  fact 
which  is  sufficiently  explained  by  the  imperfection  of  human 
nature  on  the  one  hand  and  the  inadequacy  of  the  means 
whereby  intention  is  translated  into  action  on  the  other. 

In  the  first  place  Francis  Joseph  was  a  German  prince. 
It  was  in  that  capacity  that  he  ascended  the  throne  of  his 
fathers  in  the  stormy  year  1848,  and  such  he  remained,  per- 
haps unconsciously,  during  the  eight-and-sixty  years  of 
his  reign.  In  his  heart  of  hearts  he  stood  for  all  that  was  old 
Germany,  at  any  rate  in  that  universal  sense  which  prevailed 
in  the  German  Confederation  before  it  was  destroyed  by  the 
fratricidal  war  of  1866.  The  direct  result  of  that  war  was 
the  appearance  of  the  dualistic  Austro-Hungarian  Monarchy, 
whose  founder  Francis  Joseph  himself  became  on  the  advice 
of  the  Chancellor  Baron  von  Beust.  It  was  a  natural  result 
of  his  high  conception  of  duty  and  his  innate  conservatism 
that  the  Emperor  always  stood  by  the  preservation  of  that 
particular  form  of  constitution  and  firmly  and  unwaveringly 
adhered  to  the  principles  prescribed  by  the  "  Compromise  " 
of  1867. 

Yet  in  the  end  his  stubbornness  on  this  point  proved  in 
many  ways  disastrous.  In  the  eastern  half  of  the  Empire 
the  Magyar  nation,  basing  their  claims  on  the  rights  granted 
them  in  1848  and  confirmed  by  charter  in  1867,  adopted  a 

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Francis  Joseph  and  his  Peoples 

resolute  centralizing  policy  which  had  as  its  ultimate  object 
the  complete  absorption  of  all  the  non-Magyar  nationalities 
in  the  territories  of  St.  Stephen's  crown. 

The  western  half  of  the  Empire,  on  the  other  hand,  had 
henceforth  to  preserve  its  German  character,  or  at  any  rate 
an  official  German  stamp.  Yet  this  German  ascendancy 
rested  on  no  real  foundation,  for  in  Austria,  which  enjoyed 
the  not  particularly  sonorous  name  of  "  the  Kingdoms  and 
territories  represented  in  the  Reichsrat,'*  the  German  element 
was  actually  in  a  minority.  The  Germans  were  thrust  further 
and  further  in  the  background  by  the  rapid  natural  increase 
of  the  Slav  population  in  the  north  and  south,  and  it  is  there- 
fore hardly  surprising  that  in  the  beginning  of  the  eighties 
the  demand  of  the  Slavs  for  national  autonomy  became  more 
vocal  and  insistent.  In  fact  a  period  opened  in  which  the 
Government  at  one  time  had  no  plans  or  ideas  at  all  and 
gave  precedence  to  the  rights  of  the  nationalities,  principally 
the  Slavs,  as  the  requirements  of  the  moment  seemed  to  dic- 
tate, and  at  another  curtailed  or  withdrew  those  rights  by 
the  action  of  the  central  authorities. 

In  a  word,  as  in  earlier  times,  the  game  of  playing  off  the 
nationalities  against  each  other  was  resumed  and  the  Govern- 
ment believed  it  could  maintain  its  supremacy  on  the  "  Divide 
et  impera "  principle.  This  was  the  chief  characteristic 
of  the  long  period  in  which  Counts  Taaffe  and  Badeni,  of 
unholy  memory,  held  the  office  of  Austrian  Minister-President. 
For  years  and  years  the  Emperor  allowed  these  blind 
guides  to  rule  unhindered,  to  the  prejudice  of  the  Empire. 
One  of  the  outstanding  characteristics  of  the  old  Emperor 
was  that  in  all  departmental  questions  he  would  only  hear 
the  competent  authority — the  Minister — and,  on  principle, 
disregarded  all  rival  or  outside  influences.  Moreover,  when 
anyone  had  won  his  confidence  the  Emperor  always  stuck 
to  him  through  thick  and  thin  unless  some  catastrophe  made 
a  change  imperative. 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

At  any  rate  Taaffe  and  Badeni  were  able  to  do  an  enormous 
amount  of  mischief,  which  subsequently  proved  more  or  less 
irreparable,  for  by  degrees  the  political  chaos  in  the  western 
half  of  the  Empire  developed  into  national  chaos,  which  it 
was  beyond  the  power  of  later  Governments  to  control. 
The  Government  had  finally  to  rest  satisfied  with  meeting 
the  necessities  of  the  moment  and  devoting  all  its  efforts  to 
obtaining  a  majority  in  the  chamber  by  the  employment  of 
all  possible  expedients  and,  as  a  rule,  back-stairs  influence. 
Any  great  programme  was  now  beyond  it.  Even  the  two 
best  Minister-Presidents  in  the  later  years  of  the  Emperor's 
reign,  the  extremely  able  Ernst  von  Koerber  and  the  indus- 
trious Baron  von  Bienerth,  failed  to  secure  any  change, 
and  even  they  could  only  keep  the  leaking  ship  of  state  afloat 
by  great  efforts  and  the  employment  of  all  kinds  of  artifices 
they  thoroughly  disliked. 

This  political  decadence  of  the  western  half  of  the  Empire 
was  exploited  by  Hungary,  not  unskilfully,  to  realize  her  selfish 
ambitions.  Her  most  effective  opportunity  was  that  periodi- 
cal renewal  of  the  "  Compromise  "  between  the  two  States 
which  had  been  provided  for  in  1867,  on  the  very  proper 
principle  that  future  developments  might  make  changes 
advisable.  On  these  occasions  the  Hungarian  conditions 
became  more  and  more  exorbitant,  and  the  Austrian  Govern- 
ment, the  position  of  which  was  always  shaky  owing  to  the 
domestic  situation,  was  neither  strong  nor  firm  enough  to 
oppose  any  serious  resistance  to  Hungary's  bullying.  The 
result  was  that  a  state  of  high  tension  gradually  developed 
between  the  two  halves  of  the  Empire  which  paralysed  any 
efforts  to  pursue  a  practical  and  profitable  foreign  policy, 
and  made  it  virtually  impossible  for  the  Empire  to  command 
respect  abroad. 

The  Emperor  was  much  too  old — at  any  rate  in  my  time 
— to  use  his  personal  influence  to  put  things  right,  and  in 
any  case  the  constitution  itself  and  the  dual  organization  of 

192 


The  Archduke  Francis  Ferdinand. 


IFacing  p.  iga 


Francis  Joseph  and  his  Peoples 

the  Empire  hampered  any  vigorous  intervention  by  the 
Crown.  One  feature  of  the  structure  of  the  Danube  Mon- 
archy was  that  the  Emperor  had  to  deal  with  separate  Austrian 
and  Hungarian  ministries — in  a  word  with  a  vast  number  of 
ministries,  each  of  whom  possessed  the  right  to  report  to  him 
personally.  The  effect  was  that  all  kinds  of  proposals  were 
put  before  the  Sovereign  by  many  authorities  of  equal  com- 
petence, and  it  was  so  harassing  a  problem  to  select  the  one 
which  would  satisfy  everyone  that  a  thorough  and  well-con- 
sidered solution  was  hardly  ever  arrived  at. 

Of  course  the  Emperor  had  his  Civil  Cabinet  to  help  him. 
By  its  constitution  it  was  supposed  to  serve  not  only  as  an 
intermediate  authority — ^which  it  was — but  also,  I  think,  as 
a  regulator  and  even  a  safety  valve  for  the  Sovereign's 
activities  in  domestic  affairs.  To  conform  to  the  dualistic 
division  of  the  monarchy  it  comprised  an  Austrian  and  a 
Hungarian  section,  with  a  common  head  in  the  Chief  of  the 
Cabinet.  The  Austrian  section  was  composed  of  officials 
belonging  to  all  the  nationalities  of  the  western  half  of  the 
Empire ;  the  Hungarian  of  Magyars  exclusively,  with  the 
exception  of  one  or  two  Croatian  functionaries.  In  practice 
the  head  of  the  Hungarian  section  enjoyed  wider  powers 
than  his  Austrian  colleague  because  he  dealt  independently 
with  matters  concerning  Hungary,  and  laid  his  proposals 
relating  to  such  matters  before  the  Emperor  personally, 
while  in  the  Austrian  section  this  function  was  the  duty 
of  the  Chief  of  the  Cabinet. 

The  Civil  Cabinet,  with  its  considerable  staff,  had  its 
official  seat  at  the  Hofburg  in  Vienna.  When  the  Emperor 
was  travelling,  staying  in  towns  in  the  western  half  of  the 
empire  or  residing  at  Ischl  for  the  summer  months,  he  was 
accompanied  by  the  Chief  of  the  Cabinet,  sometimes  only  by 
the  Director  or  a  Councillor  of  the  Austrian  section.  They 
always  took  a  few  officials  with  them  who  could  speak  the 
language  of  the  district  to  be  visited.    When  the  Emperor 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

travelled  or  stayed  in  Hungary  the  Director  of  the  Hun- 
garian section  and  a  few  of  its  Hungarian  officials  were  included 
in  the  suite. 

When  the  Emperor  travelled  abroad  he  always  took  with 
him  representatives  of  both  the  Austrian  and  Hungarian 
sections. 

During  my  period  of  service  in  the  Aides-de-Camp's 
Department  the  office  of  Chief  of  the  Cabinet  was  held  by 
Baron  von  Schiessl  who  had  been  transferred  from  the  diplo- 
matic service.  Through  our  official  relations  I  came  to 
realize  what  a  zealous  and  unusually  tactful  man  he  was  and 
what  amazing  knowledge  he  had.  Yet  I  could  not  resist  the 
impression  that  he  lacked  initiative  and  therefore  was  not  too 
fond  of  responsibility.  The  result  was  that  under  his  direction 
the  Civil  Cabinet  was  not,  as  it  probably  should  have  been,  an 
intermediate  but  independent  authority  but  virtually  neither 
more  nor  less  than  a  channel  through  which  official  docu- 
ments passed.  It  merely  sent  on  to  the  Emperor  the  minutes 
and  proposals  passed  to  it  by  the  various  ministries  and 
usually  confined  its  activities  to  obtaining  the  sovereign's  ap- 
proval of  the  final  draft  drawn  up  by  the  Ministers  themselves. 

It  may  be  that  this  practice  was  in  accordance  with  the 
right  view  of  the  Civil  Cabinet's  functions,  but  it  struck  me 
as  much  too  anaemic.  Of  course,  in  all  really  important 
matters  the  Minister-Presidents  or  even  the  Ministers  reported 
personally  to  the  Emperor  so  that  they  had  an  opportunity 
of  justifying  their  proposals  and  explaining  them  in  detail  to 
their  sovereign.  But  this  meant  that  the  Emperor  always 
heard  the  views  and  intentions  of  one  side  only — and  that  the 
most  interested — and  in  spite  of  conferences  and  audiences 
there  was  nothing  for  him  but  to  accept  this  one-sided 
presentation  of  the  case  and  decide  accordingly.  The  system 
meant  that  in  the  long  run  the  Minister-Presidents  or 
Ministers  were  omnipotent,  a  fact  which  not  infrequently 
had  disastrous  results. 

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Francis  Joseph  and  his  Peoples 

This  was  all  the  more  probable  because  the  Emperor  was 
hardly  in  touch  with  public  opinion.  He  was  informed  of  its 
trend  only  through  a  few  officials  who  were  naturally  biased. 

By  "  public  opinion  "  I  mean  more  especially  that  of  the 
legitimate  representatives  of  the  people,  the  deputies.  The 
Emperor  could  have  learned  much  that  would  have  been  of 
benefit  to  the  state  from  conversation  with  them,  if  only 
because  he  would  have  had  that  direct  personal  touch  which 
the  most  carefully  composed  written  documents  could  not 
give. 

This  is  my  own  view.  It  may  be  quite  incorrect.  Once 
when  I  was  discussing  the  question  with  Freiherr  von  Kizigin- 
Mardegani,  the  able  and  cultured  secretary  to  the  Cabinet 
who  is  well  versed  in  its  procedure,  he  shook  his  head  and  said 
with  conviction  : 

"  At  first  glance  that  seems  sound.  For  a  long  time  I 
thought  the  same  myself,  but  now,  after  many  years  of 
political  experience,  I've  arrived  at  the  firm  conviction  that 
this  scheme  is  merely  hypothetical  and  would  not  work  in 
practice.  The  result  would  not  only  be  that  every  fresh 
question  would  give  rise  to  a  storm  of  chaotic  and  heter- 
ogeneous discussion  that  would  enormously  complicate  the 
carrying  out  of  any  of  the  Emperor's  decisions,  but  the 
Civil  Cabinet  would  have  to  have  the  services  of  a  dispro- 
portionately large  staff  if  it  had  to  deal  with  the  unofficial  as 
well  as  the  official  questions  that  such  a  system,  however 
efficiently  worked,  would  be  bound  to  raise.  And  further, 
to  settle  most  questions,  even  those  of  little  importance, 
would  involve  loss  of  time  and  consequent  delay  which  it 
would  be  difficult  to  make  good." 

Kizigin  proved  the  impossibility  of  such  a  scheme  and  his 
view  is  supported  by  the  fact  that  the  young  Emperor  Charles, 
who  had  no  practical  experience,  impulsively  tried  to  adopt 
it  and  brought  everything  to  a  standstill. 

That  convinced  me,  and  yet  I  should  have  liked  to  see 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

closer  touch  established  between  the  Emperor  and  the  people's 
representatives. 

There  were,  of  course,  occasions  when  the  Emperor  came 
into  contact  with  the  deputies  ;  receptions  and  banquets  for 
the  delegations,  public  audiences  and  occasional  special 
political  receptions.  These  opportunities,  however,  were 
not  only  rare  but  very  brief.  The  information  that  the 
Emperor  gleaned  about  the  welfare  of  his  people  in  the  con- 
versations that  followed  such  parliamentary  banquets,  as  I 
have  myself  heard  over  and  over  again,  was  confined  entirely 
to  generalities. 

The  Emperor  made  a  point  of  not  dipping  any  deeper  than 
this  into  political  and  social  questions  in  order  to  avoid  the 
discovery  of  social  grievances  and  being  forced  to  take  dis- 
agreeable action.  For  this  reason  he  only  came  into  touch 
with  the  deputies  when  it  was  unavoidable,  as,  for  instance, 
when  he  personally  opened  the  sessions  of  the  chambers  and 
read  the  speech  from  the  throne. 

An  additional  reason  for  this  attitude  was  the  low  opinion 
he  held  of  his  parliaments.  The  reports  that  reached  him 
only  served  to  increase  his  impatience  with  the  proceedings 
of  the  chambers.  The  Austrian  Reichstag  was  content  to 
spend  its  time  in  vain  wrangling  over  questions  of  language 
and  national  susceptibilities ;  the  Hungarian  Reichstag  never 
rose  above  its  petty  policy  of  pin-pricks  towards  the  western 
half  of  the  empire  and  its  strivings  for  full  Magyar  indepen- 
dence. The  important  practical  questions  of  the  day  and  the 
claims  of  the  people's  welfare  their  elected  representatives, 
for  the  most  part,  ignored.  This  naturally  distressed  the 
Emperor  and  strengthened  his  opinion  that  parliamentary 
procedure  was  not  to  be  taken  seriously,  since  it  never  pro- 
duced any  definite  results.  This  explains  his  impatient  remark 
to  Count  Stephan  Tisza,  then  Hungarian  Minister-President, 
at  a  lunch  at  GodoUo  castle  in  the.  autumn  of  1904. 

"  So  long  as  the  deputies  can  find  nothing  better  to  do 

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Francis  Joseph  and  his  Peoples 

than  wrangle  perpetually  about  questions  of  nationality,  I 
at  any  rate  will  have  nothing  to  do  with  them." 

The  Emperor,  however,  adopted  a  very  friendly  attitude 
towards  the  Delegations,  committees  of  the  parliaments  of 
both  Austria  and  Hungary,  which  met  annually,  in  Vienna 
and  Budapest  alternately,  to  discuss  the  common  interests  of 
the  empire.  The  Foreign  Minister,  the  War  Minister  and 
the  joint  Finance  Minister  took  part  in  these  sessions.  There 
is  no  doubt  that  these  assemblies  worked  more  expedi- 
tiously and  with  more  definite  results  than  the  parliamentary 
chambers  ;  the  tone  of  their  meetings  was  more  dignified. 
But  beyond  a  few  occasional  conversations  the  Emperor 
never  really  got  into  personal  touch  even  with  the  members 
of  the  Delegations. 

The  Emperor's  distaste  for  politicians  may  have  been 
aggravated  by  a  further  consideration.  From  his  youth  up 
the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  had  drawn  a  sharp  distinction 
between  the  nobility  and  the  other  social  classes.  Caste 
feeling  has  always  been  the  very  breath  of  life  to  the  higher 
nobility,  down  to  our  own  times,  and  it  was  natural  that  this 
feeling  should  be  shared  by  the  Emperor.  The  last  thing 
he  wanted  was  to  widen  the  circle  of  those  with  whom  personal 
contact  was  necessary,  and  he  considered  such  a  course 
derogatory  to  his  own  dignity.  To  seek  the  advice  of  depu- 
ties, politicians,  experts  or  minor  officials  would  have  seemed 
to  Francis  Joseph  entirely  out  of  keeping  with  the  dignity 
of  his  position  as  the  sovereign.  It  was  entirely  contrary 
to  his  principles. 

He  would  have  accepted  even  this  sacrifice,  however,  if  he 
had  been  convinced  that  it  was  his  duty,  for  duty  with  him 
came  before  all  other  considerations ;  but  this  view  never 
seems  to  have  occurred  to  him. 

The  blame  for  this  omission  should  be  laid  at  the  door  of 
the  Chief  of  the  Cabinet ;  he  was  the  official  whose  post 
marked  him  out  as  the  right  man  to  guide  his  master  on  this 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

point ;  the  Minister-Presidents  and  Heads  of  Departments 
were  less  responsible  as  they  had  enough  difficulties  of  their 
own  with  the  chambers  and  it  could  hardly  be  expected  that 
they  should  seek  to  involve  their  Emperor  in  the  same  troubles, 
especially  as  his  very  aloofness  made  him  the  one  sure  sup- 
porter of  the  Ministers  in  their  struggle  with  the  conflicting 
demands  of  the  political  parties. 

And  yet,  after  all  my  experience  at  the  court,  I  should 
have  expected  much  from  closer  contact  between  the  Em- 
peror and  the  representatives  of  his  people,  elected  or  per- 
manent. The  personal  prestige  of  the  aged  Emperor,  which 
was  realized  by  all  who  came  near  him  even  for  a  short  time, 
could  not  have  failed,  in  my  opinion,  to  have  a  great  effect.  I 
believe  firmly  that  on  many  occasions  the  stormy  seas  of 
domestic  politics  could  easily  have  been  stilled  by  the  Emperor's 
personal  influence.  This  influence,  however,  was  never  brought 
to  bear  at  the  time  of  crisis  ;  he  would  not  deal  with  any 
question,  however  acute,  except  by  written  communications, 
and  that  was  not  enough.  What  was  required  was  the  spoken 
word,  more  effective  than  the  most  exhaustive  memorandum. 

The  result  was  that  his  method  of  keeping  in  touch  with 
current  affairs  through  the  medium  of  ministers,  provincial 
governors  and  other  dignitaries  often  put  him  on  a  false  scent  ; 
however  able,  experienced  and  loyal  these  men  might  be, 
they  were  after  all  only  human  and  not  proof  against  the 
influences  of  self-interest  and  opportunism.  The  Emperor 
therefore  did  not  always  get  the  truth,  the  picture  that  was 
drawn  for  him  being  too  often  one-sided  or  even  skilfully 
distorted.  This  led  to  unwise  action,  fatal  neglect  and 
half-measures. 

From  the  almost  unlimited  evidence  with  which  I  could 
support  this  opinion  I  will  confine  myself  to  quoting  one 
concrete  example.  During  the  war  Baron  von  Kizigin- 
Mardegani,  who,  as  I  have  already  mentioned,  was  secretary 
of  the  Imperial  Civil  Cabinet,  went  on  a  short  leave  to  his 

198 


Francis  Joseph  and  his  Peoples 

home  in  Dalmatia.  On  his  return  he  took  the  first  oppor- 
tunity of  calling  upon  the  Emperor  who  with  his  customary- 
keen  interest  in  all  that  concerned  the  peoples  of  his  empire, 
listened  carefully  to  the  Baron's  comprehensive  report  of 
the  situation  he  had  found  in  Dalmatia. 

With  commendable  frankness  Kizigin  painted  the  Dal- 
matian situation  in  the  blackest  colours,  as  indeed  was 
justified  by  the  facts  :  all  men  capable  of  working  called  to 
the  colours  ;  only  old  men,  women  and  children  left ;  the 
fields  left  uncultivated  ;  the  country  left  entirely  to  its  own 
resources  for  want  of  an  efficient  system  of  railway  communica- 
tion with  the  other  states,  with  no  means  of  combating 
starvation  and  the  many  pestilences  that  war  brings  in  its 
train,  and,  especially  among  the  children,  a  truly  terrifying 
mortality.  In  short,  it  was  a  picture  of  the  direst  misery 
based  on  personal  observation  and  painted  by  Baron  Kizigin 
in  words  inspired  by  his  love  for  his  native  land  and  unswerving 
patriotism. 

The  report  made  the  deepest  impression  on  the  Emperor, 
and  Kizigin  was  just  on  the  point  of  suggesting  measures 
that  might  relieve  the  distress  of  the  people  of  Dalmatia, 
when  Governor  Count  Attems,  who  had  just  arrived  in  Vienna 
from  Zara,  was  announced. 

The  Emperor  received  him  at  once  and  listened  attentively 
to  his  "  official  "  account  of  the  situation  in  Dalmatia.  This 
was  quite  a  different  story  from  Kizigin's.  The  Governor 
painted  everything  in  glowing  colours,  let  himself  go  com- 
placently on  the  subject  of  the  patriotism  of  the  people  who 
rose  superior  to  any  inconvenience  the  war  might  have  caused, 
if  indeed  a  few  isolated  cases  of  such  inconveniences  really 
did  exist ;  he  prophesied  a  future  for  Dalmatia  that  gave  no 
cause  for  misgiving. 

With  the  perfect  tact  so  characteristic  of  him  the  Emperor 
did  not  give  Count  Attems  the  slightest  hint  that  he  had 
already    heard  a  quite  different    account  of    the    situation 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

in  Dalmatia  from  another  quarter  and  dismissed  the  Governor 
with  perfect  friendliness. 

At  the  next  opportunity  the  Emperor  taxed  Baron 
Kizigin  with  the  conflicting  reports.  The  latter  could  only 
insist  that  he  had  reported  conscientiously  and  to  the  best 
of  his  knowledge,  and  neither  could  nor  would  endorse  the 
Governor's  report. 

Shortly  afterwards,  when  Kizigin  met  Count  Attems  he 
gave  full  rein  to  his  indignation  at  the  Count's  report.  The 
Governor,  however,  merely  answered  that  he  was  perfectly 
well  aware  of  the  inexpressible  misery  in  Dalmatia,  and  the 
inevitable  ruin  towards  which  the  country  was  heading, 
but  it  had  never  occurred  to  him  to  give  a  hint  of  the  true 
situation  to  the  Emperor.  It  would  not  have  done  to  upset 
or  excite  the  aged  monarch,  already  weighed  down  by  so 
much  sorrow,  with  news  of  that  kind.  .  .  . 

Perhaps  from  this  point  of  view  it  would  have  been  better 
— as  many  with  whom  I  have  spoken  maintain — to  apply 
to  the  case  of  the  Emperor  of  the  Austro-Hungarian  Empire 
the  principle  followed  in  England  and  Italy :  *'  Le  rot  regne 
ne  gouverne  pas  "  ;  a  principle  which  is  becoming  more  and 
more  in  keeping  with  the  mentality  of  modern  nations. 
Whether  this  would  have  been  possible  or  advantageous  in 
the  case  of  such  an  intricate  structure  as  Austria-Hungary 
I  would  rather  not  have  to  decide.  It  is  possible  that  in 
this  special  case  a  powerful  regulator  controlled  by  the  Em- 
peror at  the  head  of  the  state  may  have  been  indispensable 
to  keep  such  a  complicated  machine  in  motion.  This  must 
have  been  the  feehng  of  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph,  based 
on  his  long  experience,  for  with  his  fanatical  devotion  to 
duty  it  can  only  have  been  some  such  conviction  that 
made  him  so  jealous  of  any  encroachment  upon  his  tremendous 
arbitrary  powers  as  ruler  of  the  empire.  There  is  not  the 
slightest  doubt  that  he  was  actuated  solely  by  his  solicitude 
for  the  welfare  of    his  peoples,  for  with  his  characteristic 

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Francis  Joseph  and  his  Peoples 

and  absolute  suppression  of  self,  he  never  came  near,  even 
in  thought,  to  applying  Louis  XIV.'s  famous  motto  :  "  VEtat, 
c^est  moi  !  "  to  his  own  line  of  action. 

I  have  already  briefly  mentioned  the  Emperor's  weakness 
for  the  higher  nobility.  To  a  certain  point  this  is  compre- 
hensible in  a  sovereign  of  his  type. 

"  He  thinks  more  of  the  nobility  than  of  the  rest  of  his 
people,"  once  remarked  Dr.  Ritter  von  Kerzl,  the  Emperor's 
physician  for  many  years,  in  his  abrupt  way.  This  was  at 
the  end  of  August,  1902,  when  we  were  travelling  with  the 
Emperor's  suite  from  Ischl  to  Vienna  to  welcome  Queen 
Maria  Christine  of  Spain  who  had  just  arrived.  When  the 
royal  train  arrived  at  Altmiinster  station  we  met  the  Arch- 
duchess Marie  Valerie  with  her  eldest  children.  The  Infante 
Don  Alonso  of  Bourbon  was  spending  the  summer  there 
and  they  were  returning  from  a  visit  to  him.  The  Emperor 
left  his  saloon,  conversed  for  some  time  with  his  daughter 
and  grandchildren  and  then  turned  to  his  daughter's  gentle- 
man-in-waiting. Captain  Count  Bellegarde,  shook  hands  with 
him  and  asked  cordially  after  his  health  and  that  of  his  family. 
This  was  a  most  unusual  thing  and  astonishing  to  anyone  who 
had  the  slightest  knowledge  of  the  Emperor's  ways.  I  could 
not  understand  in  the  least  how  Count  Bellegarde  came  to 
be  singled  out  in  this  way  as  neither  his  rank,  position,  nor 
official  duties  were  in  any  way  eminent.  I  therefore  ques- 
tioned Dr.  Kerzl,  who  was  sitting  in  the  same  compartment, 
and  received  the  apt  reply  I  have  given  above. 

Later  on  I  observed  a  number  of  examples  of  the  same 
thing.  It  was  obvious  that  the  Emperor  regarded  the 
nobility  as  on  a  higher  plane,  and  he  openly  treated  them 
with  special  favour.  In  the  autumn  of  1905,  one  of  his 
aides-de-camp,  at  the  end  of  the  usual  period  of  service  with 
the  Emperor,  had  to  rejoin  his  regiment  and  a  successor  had 
to  be  appointed.  A  list  had  already  been  submitted  by  the 
Ministry  of  War  containing,   among  other    applicants,   the 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

name  of  Count  Schaffgotsche.  Count  Paar  at  once  said 
to  me  : 

"  That's  the  one.  The  Emperor  likes  to  have  aristocrats 
in  his  suite." 

As  a  result  of  this  preference  all  prominent  positions 
involving  much  authority  and  great  responsibility  were 
reserved  in  the  first  place  for  the  nobility. 

I  also  often  heard  the  complaint  that  it  was  specially 
characteristic  of  the  Austrian  and  Hungarian  high  nobility 
to  let  their  personal  interests  take  first  place  in  everything. 
As  glaring  examples  of  this  I  have  repeatedly  heard  people 
quote  the  names  of  the  Austrian  Minister-President,  Count 
Stiirgkh,  and  the  Governor  of  Bohemia,  Prince  Thun,  to 
both  of  whom  the  responsibility  for  the  collapse  of  the  empire 
was  afterwards  imputed  by  public  opinion.  Against  this  I 
must  quote  the  case  of  a  member  of  the  higher  nobility,  the 
Hungarian  Minister-President  Count  Stephen  Tisza  who 
devoted  himself  body  and  soul,  and  finally  sacrificed  his  life 
to  the  interests  and  greatness  of  his  country.  This  is  another 
example  of  the  error  of  generalizing  without  carefully  weighing 
all  the  facts. 

The  personal  aim  of  the  Emperor  was  to  further  the  in- 
terests of  every  nationality  in  the  best  possible  way.  Of  this 
there  cannot  be  the  slightest  doubt.  If  events,  as  seen 
by  the  public,  occasionally  gave  a  very  different  impression, 
and  called  forth  protests  from  the  different  races  of  the 
empire,  it  was  not  the  Emperor's  fault.  In  such  cases  he 
appears  to  have  been  misinformed,  as  was  frequently  the  case, 
or  intermediate  authorities  had  acted  on  their  own  initiative, 
and  not  in  the  spirit  of  the  Emperor's  principles.  I  cannot 
too  strongly  assert,  and  my  assertion  is  based  on  many  years' 
service  with  the  Emperor's  suite,  that  the  Emperor  recognized 
no  differences  in  his  dealings  with  the  peoples  whose  fate  he 
controlled  ;  they  were  all  dear  to  him.  As  far  as  he  personally 
was  concerned,  this  was  the  guiding  principle  of  his  reign. 

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Francis  Joseph  and  his  Peoples 

Notwithstanding  this  impartiality  his  natural  inclina- 
tions drew  him  towards  the  German-Austrians.  He  was 
a  German  by  descent  and  upbringing,  and  it  was  therefore 
natural  that  he  should  regard  the  German  as  the  core  of  his 
heterogeneous  empire. 

This  made  him  all  the  more  anxious  to  see  the  notion  of 
"  Osterreichertum  "  become  part  of  the  very  flesh  and  blood 
of  German-Austria.  This  was  the  cause  of  his  sensitiveness 
to  the  slightest  indication  of  latent  tendencies  among  the 
Germans  of  his  empire  to  be  attracted  to  the  German 
Empire ;  the  least  hint  of  such  tendencies  sufficed  to  upset 
him  altogether. 

¥ox  the  grand  manoeuvres  of  1899,  Klagenfurt,  the  chief 
town  of  Carinthia  and  manoeuvre  headquarters,  was  decorated 
for  the  reception  of  the  Emperor.  Among  the  flags  the  black, 
red  and  yellow  of  Germany  could  be  seen  here  and  there  over 
the  houses  of  a  few  German  nationals.  Several  of  these  had 
already  been  removed  by  official  orders  before  the  arrival  of  the 
Emperor  but  one  or  two  remained.  The  Emperor's  keen 
eye  at  once  picked  them  out  and  his  good-humour  immedi- 
ately vanished.  The  Chief  of  the  General  Staff,  Baron  von 
Beck,  told  us  the  same  evening  that  the  Emperor  had  been 
very  seriously  annoyed  at  the  German  flags  which  he  regarded 
as  an  insult  to  himself  because  it  was  a  compliment  to  the 
Hohenzollerns. 

The  same  thing  happened  in  June,  1901,  in  Aussig,  a 
Bohemian  industrial  town  to  which  the  Emperor  paid  a 
few  hours'  visit  after  staying  a  fortnight  at  Prague.  As  he 
entered  the  main  square  he  was  greeted  by  a  little  girl  in 
gala  dress  who  offered  him  a  bouquet  and  welcomed  him  to 
the  "  German  "  town  of  Aussig  in  a  few  words.  The  Em- 
peror's face  immediately  clouded,  and  for  the  whole  of  the 
time  in  Aussig  he  was  in  a  bad  temper,  said  very  little  and 
took  the  "  mistake  "  in  very  bad  part.  All  such  manifestations 
of  "  Germanism  "  touched  the  Emperor's  sore  point  because 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

he  suspected  the  presence  of  Pan-German  tendencies  behind 
them. 

The  justice  of  this  view  was  confirmed  by  the  old  sovereign's 
great  apprehension  about  the  "  Cut  loose  from  Rome " 
movement  about  the  beginning  of  the  century.  He  could 
not  say  enough  in  thankful  praise  of  the  attitude  of  the 
Prussian,  Saxon  and  Wiirtemberg  courts  which  "  gave  this 
malicious  agitation  " — as  the  Emperor  called  it — "  the  cold 
shoulder  from  the  start."  As  a  matter  of  fact  the  "  cut  loose 
from  Rome  "  movement,  which  soon  died  down  and  came 
to  nothing,  was  only  the  war  cry  of  a  handful  of  hotheads  and 
quite  unworthy  of  any  particular  attention.  But  just  be- 
cause it  appealed  most  to  the  Germans,  it  cost  the  Emperor 
many  a  sleepless  night.  It  had  been  the  same  with  the 
activities  of  Schonerer  and  his  followers  twenty  years  before. 
The  Emperor  wanted  to  be  able  to  count  on  the  Austrians 
absolutely,  whatever  might  befall. 

Next  to  the  Germans  the  nation  in  the  empire  for  which 
the  old  sovereign  had  the  most  affection  was  the  Italian. 
The  events  of  1859  and  1866  had  robbed  him  of  his  real 
Italian  possessions  and  not  many  Italian  subjects  were  left 
to  him,  but  he  took  a  genuine  interest  in  their  welfare. 
There  were  two  Italian  councillors  in  his  Military  Cabinet 
who  ultimately  became  directors  of  sections.  Several  Italians 
were  employed  at  court ;  Italian  officers  reached  the  highest 
posts  in  the  army  and  some  of  them  were  selected  as  his 
aides-de-camp.  In  the  government  offices  at  Vienna  not 
a  few  Italians  were  in  charge  of  highly  important  departments. 
The  Emperor  had  a  high  opinion  of  Italian  culture.  In  this 
he  was  probably  affected  by  the  fact  that  he  could  both 
speak  and  write  Italian  perfectly.  A  final  reason  was  his 
memories  of  his  happy  youth  which  had  been  closely  asso- 
ciated with  Italy.  The  Emperor  never  forgot  them  and  often 
spoke  of  them  with  real  pleasure.  I  remember  how  the 
court  chaplain,  Bishop  Dr.  Mayer,  once  remarked  at  dinner 

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Francis  Joseph  and  his  Peoples 

at  Ischl  in  the  summer  of  1906  that  Austria-Hungary  hardly 
ever  had  as  many  cardinals  as  at  that  moment. 

"  You're  wrong  there ! "  the  Emperor  immediately 
interjected.  "  When  I  began  my  reign,  the  Archbishop 
of  Milan  and  the  Patriarch  of  Venice  also  had  the  Cardinal's 
hat." 

In  the  Emperor's  bedroom  at  the  Hofburg  in  Vienna 
hung  a  small  and  somewhat  crude  oil  painting,  representing 
him  at  a  review  in  the  spring  of  1862  at  Mestre,  near  Venice. 
I  could  never  imagine  why  this  sorry  production  enjoyed 
so  great  an  honour  until  I  heard  that  the  Emperor  was  par- 
ticularly fond  of  it  because  it  reminded  him  of  the  splendid 
times  he  had  had  in  Italy. 

The  Emperor  had  so  little  sympathy  with  the  ambitions 
of  the  Slavs,  both  in  the  western  and  eastern  half  of  the 
monarchy,  that  one  can  only  assume  that  he  never  understood 
them.  He  did  not  know  enough  of  Slav  psychology  to  judge 
the  significance  of  their  aspirations  rightly.  Thus  he  failed 
to  realize  the  position  their  very  numbers  had  enabled  them 
to  obtain  in  the  Hapsburg  Empire  by  the  end  of  the  nine- 
teenth century.  The  old  Sovereign  apparently  still  regarded 
the  Slavs  as  a  quantitS  negligeable,  as  they  had  been  at  the 
beginning  of  his  reign.  It  seemed  to  me  almost  as  if  he  were 
under  the  delusion  that  the  Czechs  were  merely  an  appendage 
of  the  Germans  of  Bohemia,  the  Slovenes  an  appendage  of 
the  Germans  of  Styria  and  Carinthia,  and  the  Slovaks  and 
Serbs  an  appendage  of  the  Magyars. 

It  is  true  that  he  conceded  the  Poles  of  Galicia  a  higher 
political  status,  but  he  did  not  regard  them  as  of  much 
political  importance.  He  was  convinced  that  they  had  only 
to  look  beyond  the  frontiers  of  the  empire  to  see  from  the 
fate  of  their  brothers  in  Russia  and  Prussia  how  well  off  they 
were  in  Austria  in  which  their  national  rights  were  un- 
doubtedly respected  and  preserved. 

It  is  probable  that  the  ruin  of  the  Danube  Monarchy  is 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

attributable  to  Francis  Joseph's  miscalculations  in  this  matter 
of  the  future  claims  of  the  Slavs. 

When  the  twentieth  century  opened  it  was  an  empire 
in  which  the  majority  of  the  population  were  Slavs  and  yet 
it  was  governed  by  German  and  Magyar  minorities,  at  any 
rate  officially.  There  was  some  excuse  for  the  Emperor's 
blindness  to  facts  as  regards  Hungary,  inasmuch  as  the  Magyars 
— or  perhaps  I  should  say  the  politically  omnipotent  clique 
at  the  Hungarian  court — took  advantage  of  the  Emperor's 
practice  of  never  receiving  information  from  other  than 
official  sources  to  prevent  him  having  any  idea  that  other 
nations  besides  the  Hungarians  might  have  something  to  say. 
In  Austria,  on  the  other  hand,  the  fact  that  the  Germans 
were  in  a  minority  was  so  obvious  that  it  ought  to  have  made 
anyone  realize  that  a  German  regime  could  not  be  preserved, 
even  by  the  use  of  force. 

Unfortunately  the  Emperor  never  realized  the  fact. 
He  suspected  it  might  be  so,  but  with  an  obstinacy  which 
was  perhaps  partly  due  to  his  age  he  set  his  face  against 
all  innovations  which  might  destroy,  or  even  endanger, 
however  slightly,  the  principle  of  dualism.  In  actual  fact 
dualism  had  already  been  long  out  of  date,  thanks  to  the 
unsuspectedly  rapid  and  remarkable  increase  of  the  Slav 
population  in  Austria-Hungary,  an  increase  which  shattered 
the  very  foundations  of  the  traditional  system  on  which  the 
empire. was  governed  from  Vienna  and  Budapest  and  from 
which  the  Emperor  would  allow  no  departure. 

During  his  two  longish  visits  to  Prague,  in  June,  1901 
and  April,  1907,  he  absolutely  insisted  that  no  distinction 
of  any  kind  should  ever  be  made  between  Czechs  and  Ger- 
mans. All  the  ceremonies  of  the  visits  were  made  on  that 
footing.  Such  was  essentially  his  official  attitude  and  it 
was  inspired  by  considerations  of  policy.  It  was  during 
these  two  visits  that  I  frequently  heard  the  Emperor  remark 
that  Prague  was  really  a  German  town  and  that    German 

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Francis  Joseph  and  his  Peoples 

culture  was  predominant  in  Bohemia.  As  that  was  quite 
contrary  to  the  facts  I  ultimately  began  to  think  that  the 
Emperor  simply  preferred  to  hug  an  agreeable  delusion  as 
he  was  genuinely  afraid  of  being  convinced  against  his  will 
that  Bohemia  was  mainly  a  Czech  country. 

The  Emperor  adopted  the  same  attitude  on  his  occasional 
visits  to  Moravia,  Croatia  or  southern  Hungary. 

On  one  occasion,  when  he  was  present  at  the  manoeuvres 
in  the  Banat  at  the  beginning  of  September,  1898,  the  Magyar 
ministers  and  governors  told  him  quite  seriously  that  the 
numerous  Rumanians  of  that  region  desired  nothing  more 
than  to  have  Hungarian  schools  and  ecclesiastical  institutions 
so  that  they  might  be  gradually  absorbed  by  their  Magyar 
neighbours.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  with  the  exception  of 
officials  and  the  inhabitants  of  a  few  towns,  there  were  no 
Magyars  in  the  province.  The  Emperor  was  simply  delighted 
to  hear  the  news,  a  fact  which  I  could  only  explain  on  the 
assumption  that  he  thoroughly  enjoyed  being  able  to  believe  it. 

This  was  entirely  in  keeping  with  that  view  of  the  nature 
of  the  Danube  Monarchy  which  the  Emperor  had  made  his 
own,  and  once  put  into  words  in  a  conversation  he  had  with 
the  Austrian  Minister-President,  Dr.  von  Koerber,  during 
his  long  stay  at  GodoUo  in  the  autumn  of  1904.  At  breakfast 
Koerber  was  complaining  of  the  harassing  difficulties  which 
assailed  the  government  in  Austria.  He  resigned  himself 
to  the  conclusion  that  it  could  not  well  be  otherwise  in  the 
case  of  a  mosaic  of  nations  held  together  merely  by  the  common 
bond  of  an  historic  past.  As  a  rule  the  Emperor  never  joined 
in  political  discussions,  but  this  time  he  made  an  exception 
and  intervened  with  the  remark  : 

"  I  don't  agree.  Something  else  besides  historical 
events  in  ancient  days  has  forced  our  peoples  together. 
Their  union  is  absolutely  necessary  to  their  present  and 
future  existence.  That's  why  the  monarchy  is  not  an  arti- 
ficial,  but  an   organic  body,   and   therefore  unquestionably 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

indispensable.  It  is  a  place  of  refuge,  an  asylum  for  all 
those  national  fragments  scattered  over  Central  Europe 
which  would  inevitably  lead  a  piteous  existence  if  left  to 
their  own  resources  and  become  the  playthings  of  their  more 
powerful  neighbours.  By  uniting  they  have  not  only  com- 
bined to  produce  a  power  which  commands  respect  but  have 
obtained  conditions  far  more  favourable  to  their  stability 
and  development,  thanks  to  their  social  and  economic  co- 
operation. It  is  obvious  that  in  such  an  association  one 
member  must  lead.  Earlier  on  the  leadership  was  in  the 
hands  of  the  Germans,  now  they  have  to  share  it  with  Hungary. 
Whether  the  arrangement  is  effective  and  profitable  is  cer- 
tainly arguable,  but  we've  got  to  take  it  as  it  is,  though  it's 
very  hard  to  do  so  sometimes." 

Koerber  entirely  agreed  with  these  last  words.  He  said 
that  they  hit  the  nail  on  the  head  for  only  a  man  who  had 
had  to  arrange  the  periodical  "  compromise  "  with  Hungary 
could  realize  what  a  labour  of  Sisyphus  it  was. 

"  That's  just  because  people  won't  try  and  understand 
what  a  real  compromise  is !  "  the  Emperor  burst  out.  "  In  a 
compromise  both  the  contracting  parties  must  be  ready  to 
make  concessions.  That's  what  the  Hungarians  never  realize. 
They're  always  insisting  on  their  own  claims  and  forgetting 
that  they  have  to  be  reconciled  with  those  of  the  other  half 
of  the  empire  if  the  monarchy  is  not  to  fall  to  pieces.  They 
seem  to  be  indifferent  to  this  last  possibility,  but  whether 
they'll  find  themselves  on  a  bed  of  roses  when  they're  left  to 
their  own  resources  remains  to  be  seen-  I  don't  think  so, 
but  the  Hungarians  won't  hear  of  it.  Last  year  I  nearly 
wore  myself  out  discussing  this  subject  with  Khuen-Hedervdry, 
Lukacs  and  Wekerle,  but  with  no  success  at  all.  The  most 
intelligent  men  are  those  who  favour  union  with  Cisleithania 
and  refuse  to  make  common  cause  with  irreconcilables  like 
Kossuth,  Polonyi  and  Justh  !  " 

These  words   proved   for   the  first   time   that   even   the 

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Francis  Joseph  and  his  Peoples 

old  sovereign  had  realized  what  the  Archduke  Francis  Ferdi- 
nand had  never  been  afraid  of  putting  in  his  own  pithy  way 
when  he  said  that  the  domination  of  Hungary  was  a  danger, 
if  only  a  sleeping  danger,  to  the  existence  of  the  monarchy. 

To  return  to  the  Slav  question,  it  is  certainly  surprising 
that,  having  regard  to  the  Emperor's  views,  the  leading 
political  officers  and  his  advisers  were  afraid  of  trying  to 
convert  him  to  better  ones,  though  it  was  unquestionably 
their  duty  to  do  so.  But  no  one  could  trust  himself  to  speak. 
The  grant  of  autonomy  to  the  Czechs  in  Bohemia,  Moravia 
and  Silesia,  or  the  possibility  of  uniting  all  the  South  Slavs 
in  one  state  under  Francis  Joseph's  sceptre,  was  not  even 
mentioned  in  a  whisper  in  the  sovereign's  presence.  If 
anyone  had  dared  to  do  so  he  would  have  been  in  the  Em- 
peror's bad  books  for  ever,  and  no  one  wished  to  share  the  fate 
of  Bishop  Strossmayer  or  that  which  subsequently  befell 
Kramar.  In  my  opinion  Strossmayer  and  his  followers  were 
inspired  by  the  best  intentions  towards  the  Emperor  as  well 
as  towards  their  co-nationals. 

The  cause  of  their  failure  was  not  merely  that  the  Em- 
peror was  bent  on  the  preservation  of  the  status  quo  under  all 
circumstances  and  for  that  very  reason  no  government 
could  be  found  which  would  venture  to  tackle  this  fundamental 
problem  of  state  policy  in  earnest.  Merely  to  utter  the  words 
"  Trialism  "  or  even  "  Federahsm  "  was  itself  an  act  of 
sacrilege.  What  a  task  it  would  have  been,  what  courage  it 
would  have  required  to  grasp  the  nettle  ! 

It  may  be  that  the  Danube  Monarchy  could  have  been 
saved,  even  at  the  eleventh  hour,  by  the  system  of  "  Federal- 
ism "  of  which  the  Emperor  and  his  advisers  would  hear 
nothing.  Yet  there  is  not  the  slightest  doubt  that  any 
change  in  internal  policy  must  have  led  to  a  Slav  ascendancy 
in  Austria-Hungary.  The  Emperor  shrank  back  in  horror 
from  such  an  idea.  He  considered  such  an  experiment  as 
a  dangerous  leap  in  the  dark.     In  view  of  his  old  age  and 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

his  nature,  there  was  no  possibility  of  inducing  him  to 
agree. 

In  order  to  make  some  move  in  this  direction  another 
avenue  was  explored.  It  was  thought  to  soothe  the  national 
susceptibilities  and  the  dangers  that  were  threatening, 
especially  from  the  side  of  the  Slavs,  with  the  universal 
remedy  of  social-democratic  equality.  In  universal  suffrage, 
for  which  the  Social  Democrats  had  so  long  been  crying  out, 
it  was  thought  that  a  panacea  had  been  found  for  all  national 
evils. 

Only  from  this  point  of  view  can  the  conservative 
Emperor's  ready  consent  to  such  a  fundamental  change 
be  explained.  I  must  mention,  however,  that  the  Austrian 
Minister-President,  Baron  von  Gautsch,  then  in  high  favour 
with  the  Emperor,  as  well  as  his  colleagues,  supported  uni- 
versal suffrage  with  eloquent  enthusiasm  because  they  hoped 
that  this  tremendous  increase  in  strength  for  Social  Demo- 
cracy would  settle  all  national  differences,  at  any  rate  in 
Parliament. 

These  were  the  arguments  which  won  over  the  Emperor, 
worried  to  death  as  he  was  by  national  disasters  and  utterly 
weary  of  continuous  quarrelling  at  home,  to  sanction  univer- 
sal suffrage.  This  was  made  all  the  easier  by  suggesting  to 
him  that  it  was  his  duty,  as  a  monarch  desirous  of  keeping 
abreast  of  modern  development,  to  yield  to  the  present 
demand.  Francis  Joseph  was  always  ready  to  bow  to 
"  Duty." 

If  ever  a  ministry  reckoned  without  its  host  in  the  solution 
of  a  problem  it  was  Freiherr  von  Gautsch's  with  regard  to 
universal  suffrage. 

The  Austrian  chambers  elected  on  this  basis  showed 
well-filled  social-democratic  benches,  but  there  were  no 
signs  of  the  disappearance  of  national  friction.  On  the 
contrary,  the  national  grievances  were  now  forced  into  the 
limelight  with   a   sharpness,   bitterness   and   lack   of   scruple 

210 


Francis  Joseph  and  his  Peoples 

that  would  have  been  scarcely  conceivable  in  former 
assemblies. 

With  such  a  parliament  sane  legislation  soon  became 
impossible  and  in  the  crucial  period  of  the  war  Austria 
presented  a  humiliating  spectacle.  The  western  half  of 
the  empire  had  to  be  governed  autocratically  on  the  basis 
of  Paragraph  XIV.  of  the  emergency  laws. 

The  logical  result  of  the  adoption  of  universal  suffrage 
in  Austria  would,  of  course,  have  been  a  similar  change  in 
Hungary. 

The  Magyar  political  circles  then  in  power,  however, 
would  not  hear  of  such  a  thing,  for  universal  suffrage  would 
not  only  seriously  have  endangered  their  authority,  perhaps 
undermined  it  completely,  but  it  would  have  given  the  non- 
Magyar  elements  in  the  Budapest  Reichstag  their  oppor- 
tunity. This  would  have  meant  the  final  overthrow  of  the 
Magyar  hegemony  which  hitherto  had  had  a  clear  field. 

So  now  it  was  necessary  to  call  the  Emperor's  attention 
to  the  reverse  side  of  the  medal.  This  was  done  by  pointing 
out  the  great  dangers  to  which  the  Hungarian  state  would 
be  exposed  if  the  preponderating  and  all-powerful  Magyar 
influence  were  broken  and  the  door  thrown  open  to  such 
terrible  disintegrating  elements  as  had  attacked  the  very 
marrow  of  Austria.  The  hint  was  enough  to  produce  a 
decisive  effect  upon  the  Emperor  and  all  the  efforts  of  the 
Hungarian  Social  Democrats  (even  when  they  demonstrated 
loudly  and  continuously  in  the  streets,  as  occurred  during 
the  Emperor's  visit  to  Budapest  in  the  autumn  of  191 2) 
to  bring  about  universal  suffrage  were  fruitless. 

This  is  yet  another  example  of  the  ease  with  which  the 
powerful  caste  of  the  Magyar  nobility  always  succeeded  in 
imposing  their  will  on  the  Emperor.  It  was  undeniable. 
His  pHabiHty  cannot  be  ascribed  to  any  love  for  Hungary, 
for  though  the  Emperor  spoke  Hungarian  correctly  and 
fluently  it  never  afforded    him  any  pleasure  to  stay  in  that 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

part  of  his  empire.  According  to  constitutional  usage,  he 
should  have  spent  six  months  of  every  year  in  Hungary,  but 
he  always  found  an  excuse  for  reducing  this  time  considerably. 

On  the  fortieth  anniversary  of  his  coronation  as  King  of 
Hungary,  in  June,  1907,  celebrations  took  place  in  Budapest 
at  w^hich  the  Emperor  and  most  of  the  archdukes  w^ere 
present.  The  Archduke  Francis  Ferdinand  was  among  them. 
On  returning  to  the  royal  castle  after  the  special  service  in 
the  church  in  which  he  had  been  crowned,  the  Emperor 
talked  for  a  few  moments  with  the  heir.  The  latter 
said  : 

"  It's  always  an  effort  to  me  to  come  to  Hungary  ;  I 
don't  like  being  here." 

With  his  eyes  fixed  on  the  ground  the  Emperor  replied 
quietly  :   "  I  feel  the  same." 

Further  indications  that  I  noticed  strengthened  my 
conviction  that  towards  the  end  of  his  life  the  Emperor 
was  actually  afraid  of  Hungary.  This  would  seem  the  only 
explanation  of  the  influence  which  his  Hungarian  advisers 
undoubtedly  had  over  him. 

The  first  symptoms  of  this  fear  of  Hungary,  which  he 
could  never  overcome,  may  be  traced  to  the  beginning  of 
his  reign  when  Hungary  took  up  arms  against  his  rule.  For 
that  reason  Francis  Joseph,  during  his  old  age,  avoided  all 
controversy  with  the  Magyars  whenever  it  was  possible,  gave 
way  to  their  wishes  and  during  the  severest  and  longest 
crises — as,  for  instance,  during  the  conflict  about  military 
unity  from  1903  to  1910,  displayed  an  invincible  repugnance 
to  let  things  proceed  to  extremities. 

Even  in  purely  formal  matters  the  Emperor  was  scrupu- 
lously considerate  of  Magyar  susceptibilities.  In  Hungary 
he  never  wore  any  other  uniform  than  that  of  a  Hungarian 
field-marshal  or  the  ist  Hussar  Regiment,  his  own.  He  put 
on  this  uniform  before  leaving  Vienna,  so  that  he  should  be 
wearing  it  on  his  arrival  at  Budapest.     On  ceremonial  occa- 

212 


Francis  Joseph  and  his  Peoples 

sions  in  Hungary  he  always  wore  the  ribbon  of  the  Grand 
Cross  of  the  Hungarian  Order  of  St.  Stephen  and  no  other. 

During  the  informal  receptions  that  followed  court 
banquets  at  Budapest  he  always  conversed  with  the  Hun- 
garian guests  in  their  own  language  even  if  he  was  well 
aware,  as  was  generally  the  case,  that  they  spoke  German 
fluently. 

He  made  a  point  of  never  hurting  the  feelings  of  the 
Hungarians,  even  in  the  smallest  matters,  but  always  did  what 
he  could  to  fall  in  with  their  wishes,  even  though  his  efforts 
were  not  always  completely  successful.  The  results  were 
not  always  in  the  best  interests  of  the  Empire  as  a  whole. 
The  favour  shown  to  Hungary  had  a  disastrous  effect  on 
Austria  for  the  turbulent  Czechs  especially  not  only  regarded 
Hungary*s  prerogatives  with  suspicion  but  began  to  grow 
bolder  in  their  demands  for  similar  special  privileges. 

The  Emperor  realized  the  situation,  but  he  could  hardly 
help  himself,  especially  as  the  Hungarians,  or  rather  their 
representatives,  began  to  address  him  in  very  different  lan- 
guage from  that  he  had  been  accustomed  to  in  Austria. 
The  Hungarian  Ministers,  politicians  and  deputies  ceased  to 
mince  matters  in  addressing  their  King  :  they  demanded, 
insisted,  and  even  threatened.  This  frightened  him,  and  he 
always  gave  way  in  the  end  for  the  sake  of  peace. 

His  action  infuriated  the  Archduke  Francis  Ferdinand, 
whose  eyes  were  not  blinded  ;  it  was  one  of  the  causes  of  his 
growing  estrangement  from  his  uncle  and  his  hatred  of 
Hungary. 

Owing  to  the  influence  of  Hungary  which  was  so  power- 
ful with  the  Emperor,  he  never  succeeded  in  getting  into 
closer  touch  with  the  non-Magyar  nationalities  of  Cisleithania  ; 
he  knew  next  to  nothing  of  the  Slovaks,  the  Hungarian  Serbs 
and  Rumanians,  the  Croats  and  Slavonians,  or  the  Saxons  of 
Transylvania.  These  races  were  cut  off  from  their  King  ; 
all  legislation  affecting  them  was  the  outcome  of  Hungarian 

213 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

suggestion  and  it  was  therefore  natural  that  these  nationali- 
ties should  gradually  transfer  to  the  Emperor  the  hatred 
they  had  long  been  nursing  against  the  bullying  Magyars. 
It  was  sad  to  see  how,  when  some  political  or  agrarian  difficulty 
cropped  up  in  Croatia,  he  would  yield  to  pressure  from  the 
Budapest  ministers  and  sanction  the  employment  of  repressive 
measures,  forgetful  or  regardless  of  the  fact  that  of  all  the 
peoples  of  the  Empire,  the  Croats  were  always  one  of  the 
most  loyal  to  the  Hapsburg  throne.  It  was  not  surprising 
to  an  impartial  observer  that  the  Croats  and  the  Serbs,  their 
blood-relations,  the  Rumanians,  and  finally  the  Slovaks, 
should  show  a  tendency  to  break  away  from  the  Hungarian 
Kingdom. 

The  Emperor's  official  Hungarian  advisers  had  success- 
fully impressed  on  his  mind  the  pre-eminence  of  the  Magyars. 
He  ended  by  believing  it  and  thought  the  Magyars  superior 
to  the  other  races  of  Hungary.  This  is  proved  by  a  remark 
he  once  made. 

Every  year,  at  the  time  of  the  grape-harvest,  the  Emperor 
used  to  receive  a  gift  of  splendid  grapes  from  the  nieces  of 
the  old  revolutionary  General  Gorgey,  who  was  living  in 
exile  near  Visegrad  on  the  Danube.  These  he  accepted 
with  pleasure,  sending  a  large  box  of  sweets  as  a  token  of 
his  gratitude.  In  the  autumn  of  1904  the  Emperor  happened 
to  be  at  Godollo  and  the  grapes  were  sent  there  from  Vise- 
grad. At  dinner  the  conversation  turned  to  the  subject  of 
General  Gorgey.  The  Emperor  remarked  that  Gorgey  had 
already  passed  fifty-five  years  in  exile,  hated  and  scorned  by 
his  fellow-countrymen  who  could  never  forgive  the  capitula- 
tion of  Vilagos.  Then  he  added  the  following  story  :  When 
Franz  Dedk  was  once  staying  in  Budapest,  Gorgey  begged 
him  to  put  an  end  to  the  slanders  of  which  he  was  the  victim, 
and  to  make  it  clear  to  the  Hungarians  that  it  was  only  owing 
to  his  desperate  situation  that  he  had  been  forced  to  capitulate 
as  he  and  his  militia  could  not  hope  to  hold  out  for  days 

214 


Francis  Joseph  and  his  Peoples 

against  the  tremendous  superiority  of  the  trained  Austrian 
and  Russian  forces.  Deak  replied  that  he  was  well  aware 
that  that  was  true,  and  had  never  thought  otherwise,  but  as 
a  Magyar  he  must  insist  on  leaving  the  Hungarians  in  the 
belief  that  they  had  only  been  defeated  by  treachery  ;  that 
otherwise  the  Russians  and  Austrians  would  never  have 
succeeded  in  breaking  the  courage  of  the  invincible  Hun- 
garians. He  therefore  advised  General  Gorgey  to  continue 
in  exile  and  to  find  in  his  patriotism  compensation  for 
sacrificing  his  personal  reputation  for  his  Fatherland. 

"  And  Gorgey  continued  to  keep  silence  and  be  for- 
gotten ;  he  suffered  dumbly  the  burden  of  undeserved 
calumny  and  abuse,"  concluded  the  Emperor.  "  A  nation 
possessing  men  who  think  like  that  must  be  great."  So 
perhaps  in  spite  of  himself,  the  Emperor  was  still  under 
the  Magyar  spell. 

As  I  have  already  said  in  Chapter  H.  the  Emperor  Francis 
Joseph  was  a  devout  Catholic,  holding  fast  to  his  hereditary 
faith.  He  hated  bigotry,  respected  other  creeds  and  never 
allowed  himself  to  utter  a  word  that  might  wound  a  non- 
Catholic.  There  were  Protestants  at  his  court  and  among 
his  personal  suite,  and  on  all  his  journeys  within  his  realms 
he  never  failed  to  visit,  in  addition  to  the  Roman  Catholic 
churches,  those  of  the  Greek  and  Protestant  faiths  as  well  as 
synagogues  and  mosques  and  even  occasionally  to  attend  their 
services.  During  his  first  and  only  journey  to  Bosnia  and 
Herzegovina,  in  May,  19  lo,  he  followed  the  Mohammedan 
ritual  in  the  mosques  of  Sarajevo  and  Mostar  with  a  reverence 
which  made  the  deepest  impression  on  the  faithful  in  that 
region. 

At  the  receptions  held  by  the  Emperor  in  the  different 
towns  he  visited  the  priests  and  clergy  representing  every 
rehgious  denomination  were  invariably  included.  Once  at 
Linz,  in  June,  1903,  the  rabbi,  with  raised  hands,  pronounced 
a  long  Hebrew  benediction  over  the  sovereign's  head  and  he 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

stood  in  a  reverential  attitude  until  the  end  and  then,  obviousl 
touched,  thanked  the  rabbi  with  the  words : 

"  May  the  x41mighty  hear  your  prayer  ;  it  was  truly  well 
meant." 

Here  I  should  like  to  mention  the  ancient  custom  of  St. 
Martin's  day  when  the  Jewish  community  in  Pressburg 
brought  the  Emperor  some  fat  geese  as  a  token  of  their  re- 
gard. The  gift  was  made  with  some  ceremony,  a  Jewish  dele- 
gate seeking  an  audience  of  the  Emperor  and  presenting  a  dish 
on  which  were  the  geese  plucked  and  dressed  ready  for  table 
and  decked  with  coloured  ribbon. 

Like  his  grandfather,  the  Emperor  Francis  I.,  Francis 
Joseph  took  a  livelier  interest  in  the  practical  side  of  life  than 
any  other  ;  science  and  art  in  particular  appealed  to  him  very 
little. 

In  art  matters  Frau  Schratt  gradually  became  the  Em- 
peror's right  hand.  Her  influence  was  not  always  good. 
When  she  recommended  painters,  sculptors,  musicians,  actors, 
jewellers  and  cabinet  makers  she  was  far  too  frequently 
swayed  by  personal  interests.  The  result  was  that  the  Em- 
peror patronized  some  artists  whose  work  was  of  quite  ordinary 
merit,  and  certainly  not  worthy  of  the  sovereign's  special 
favour.  During  the  life-time  of  the  Empress,  whose  sure 
taste  for  the  beautiful  seems  to  have  amounted  almost  to  genius, 
things  may  have  been  different  and  much  more  satisfactory. 

To  be  honest  it  must  be  confessed  that  at  heart  the  Em- 
peror cared  very  little  for  art.  It  was  a  sphere  which  had 
no  interest  for  him.  He  attached  no  particular  importance 
to  it  and  for  that  reason  was  reluctant  to  devote  to  it  any 
part  of  his  time,  which  was  already  fully  taken  up.  Even 
in  the  selection  of  nhjets  d'art  for  presents  he  gave  the  senior 
gentleman-in-waiting  a  free  hand.  Of  course  these  presents 
were  dutifully  submitted  to  him  before  they  were  sent  but 
he  usually  confined  himself  to  inspecting  them  and  made 
no   remark,   commendatory   or   otherwise.     Occasionally   he 

2l6 


Francis  Joseph  and  his  Peoples 

took  special  notice  of  the  frames  of  the  photographs  he  in- 
tended for  different  individuals  though  his  interest  was 
focussed  less  on  the  frames  themselves  than  on  the  heraldic 
devices  with  which  they  were  decorated. 

For  some  considerable  time  these  frames  had  the  Austrian 
crown  only  at  the  top  ;  his  initials  and  family  coat-of-arms 
were  engraved  in  the  corners  and  at  the  sides.  Of  course 
this  soon  meant  complaints  in  Hungarian  quarters.  At  first 
the  experiment  was  tried  of  having  a  special  frame  for  the 
photographs  intended  for  Hungarian  dignitaries.  These 
frarnes  were  similar  in  design  and  general  appearance  to  the 
Austrian  ones  but  had  the  Crown  of  St.  Stephen  at  the  top 
and  in  the  corners  the  Emperor's  Hungarian  initials  which 
differed  from  the  Austrian  in  that  the  letter  "  I  "  appeared 
before  the  "  F.  J."  and  not  after  them  as  in  the  Emperor's 
Latin  and  German  initials.  The  sending  of  these  signed 
photographs  to  the  donees  was  the  province  of  my  depart- 
ment and  as  this  "  dual "  system  occasionally  led  to  compli- 
cations I  tried  to  solve  the  problem  by  inventing  a  single 
frame  with  the  combined  Austrian  and  Hungarian  arms, 
supported  by  a  golden  griffin  on  one  side  and  an  angel  in 
white  and  coloured  enamel  on  the  other.  In  alternate 
corners  I  placed  the  Austrian  and  Hungarian  initials  of  the 
Emperor  and  the  arms  of  the  Imperial  House  on  the  two  sides. 

I  put  my  sketch  before  the  Emperor  in  the  summer  of 
1905.  He  was  quite  reluctant  even  to  examine  it,  kept  it 
by  him  more  than  a  week  and  finally  informed  Count  Paar 
that  the  idea  had  his  approval  if  the  two  coats-of-arms  at 
the  top  and  their  supporters  were  removed  and  simply 
replaced  by  the  Austrian  imperial  crown  and  Hungarian 
Stephen's  crown. 

There  the  matter  remained  as  the  Emperor  had  then 
remarked  :  "  I  should  never  think  of  making  such  a  conces- 
sion to  Hungary  in  a  purely  private  matter  !  " 

Great  was  my  astonishment  when,  ten  years  later,  a  coat- 

217 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

of-arms  was  introduced  for  all  institutions  common  to  both 
halves  of  the  empire  (e.g.,  the  army),  which  was  almost  exactly 
like  my  sketch  except  that  the  family  arms  were  in  the  centre 
and  it  had  the  device  "  Indivisibiliter  ac  Inseparabiliter " 
taken  from  the  text  of  the  Pragmatic  Sanction  ! 

But  I  must  get  back  to  my  real  subject.  As  I  have  said, 
Francis  Joseph's  nature  prevented  him  having  any  real 
feeling  for  art. 

Yet  he  always  considered  it  one  of  his  duties  to  do  all 
he  could  to  encourage  and  protect  the  arts.  He  never  missed 
an  art  exhibition  either  in  Vienna  or  Budapest,  examining 
all  the  exhibits  with  surprising  patience,  and  he  would  listen 
to  a  concert  from  beginning  to  end.  He  did  this,  however, 
much  in  the  same  way  as  he  would  have  laid  a  foundation- 
stone  or  opened  a  building  or  railway.  Duty  was  everything 
to  the  Emperor  and  it  was  his  cheerful  self-sacrifice  on  the 
altar  of  duty  which  gave  him  his  wonderful  power,  even  in 
his  old  age,  of  holding  together  the  motley  collection  of 
peoples  that  made  up  the  Austro-Hungarian  Empire.  That 
is  the  Emperor's  greatest  achievement.  When  dissension 
between  individual  nationalities  broke  out  his  patient 
mediation  and  single-minded  influence  always  managed  to 
pacify  them,  at  any  rate  temporarily,  for  he  always  tried  to 
do  his  best  for  everyone,  and  was  always  ready  to  exert  him- 
self unsparingly  in  such  a  cause. 

The  Emperor  may  not  have  succeeded  in  keeping  his 
peoples  unswervingly  in  the  path  of  peace  and  prosperity, 
for  such  an  ideal  was  beyond  the  limits  of  human  capacity. 
But  no  one  can  doubt  that  he  wanted  to  do  so.  It  is  shown 
not  only  by  his  exemplary  devotion  to  duty,  but  still  more 
by  his  boundless  affection  for  the  nations  of  his  empire.  To 
none  of  his  ancestors  could  the  words  of  brass  graven  on  the 
base  of  the  monument  to  Francis  I.  which  stands  in  the  inner 
court  of  the  Hofburg  in  Vienna,  be  more  fittingly  applied  : 

"Amorem  meum  populis  meis." 
2l8 


CHAPTER  IX 
FRANCIS  JOSEPH'S  FOREIGN  RELATIONS 

I  HAVE  already  pointed  out  that  the  Emperor  Francis 
Joseph  was  a  German  prince.  I  must  repeat  this  here 
because  it  was  the  very  foundation  of  his  foreign  poHcy, 
at  any  rate  while  I  was  in  the  service  of  Count  Paar.  Just 
as  the  Compromise  with  Hungary  in  1867  was  the  basis  of 
all  his  domestic  poHcy,  so  the  alliance  with  Germany  in  1878 
was  the  key  to  his  foreign  policy.  The  Emperor  maintained 
this  attitude  with  all  the  greater  firmness  and  conviction 
because  he  regarded  himself  personally  as  a  German. 

For  many  years  his  faithful  devotion  to  this  policy  was 
not  an  easy  task  for  to  the  end  of  his  life  the  Emperor  could 
never  really  forget  the  events  of  1866  and  the  final  fall  of 
the  Hapsburg  House  from  its  former  position  of  splendour 
as  the  ruling  power  of  Germany.  While  his  relations  with 
the  Emperor  William  I.  had  never  been  particularly  cordial, 
the  situation  changed  completely  when,  in  June,  1888,  the 
three  months'  reign  of  Frederick  III.  came  to  an  end  and 
the  control  of  Germany's  fate  passed  into  the  vigorous  grasp 
of  his  son,  the  youthful  Emperor  William  II. 

William  II.  showed  at  once,  and  unmistakably,  that  he 
wished  to  regard  the  past  as  buried  and  looked  forward  to 
a  future  of  close  friendship  with  Austria-Hungary. 

This  frankness  made  a  great  impression  on  the  Emperor 
Francis  Joseph.  He  gripped  the  proffered  hand  and  held 
it  fast  until  the  end  of  his  life. 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  Count  Paar  thought  Francis 
Joseph's  partiality  to  William  II.  was  based  on  the  antagonism 
between  the  latter  and  Bismarck.  Francis  Joseph  regarded 
Bismarck  as  his  bitterest  enemy.  The  events  of  the  sixties 
had  confirmed  him  in  that  view  and  his  aversion  was  extended 
to  William  I.  in  whom  he  also  saw  one  of  his  worst  adver- 
saries. Bismarck's  deprecatory  remark  that  William  II.  had 
inherited  something  of  the  qualities  of  all  his  ancestors  since 
the  first  Prussian  King,  Frederick  I.,  with  the  sole  excep- 
tion of  his  grandfather  William  I.,  at  once  disposed  him  in 
favour  of  William  II.  ;  he  instinctively  felt  drawn  towards 
him  and  it  remained  so  to  the  end. 

The  alliance  between  the  two  Central-European  powers 
was  set  upon  a  deeper  and  firmer  foundation  by  this  frank, 
personal  affection  which  bound  together  the  two  sovereigns, 
and  lasted,  free  from  the  slightest  cloud,  through  nearly  three 
decades. 

While  William  II.  looked  up  to  Francis  Joseph,  a  man 
much  older  than  himself,  with  respectful,  almost  filial,  affec- 
tion, the  latter  was  anxious  to  show  the  German  Emperor 
how  grateful  he  was.  Though  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph's 
natural  reserve  did  not  allow  his  warm  regard  for  William  II. 
to  appear  on  the  surface,  anyone  in  close  touch  with  him  could 
see  right  down  into  the  depths  of  his  unshakable  confidence 
and  cordial  sympathy.  To  this  was  added  the  Emperor's 
whole-hearted  admiration  for  the  tremendous  development 
of  Germany  during  the  reign  of  William  II.,  and  his  grateful 
recognition  of  the  great  achievements  of  the  German  nation 
in  every  sphere  of  modern  life. 

Both  rulers  spontaneously  took  every  opportunity  that 
offered  of  assuring  one  another  of  their  deep  mutual 
regard. 

When  on  November  24th,  1900, 1  was  present  at  the  swear- 
ing-in of  the  naval  recruits  in  the  drill-hall  of  the  Imperial 
dockyards   at    Kiel   and   presented   myself   to   the   Emperor 

220 


Francis  Joseph  *s  Foreign  Relations 

William   II. — by  his   special  command — the  first   words  he 
addressed  to  me  were  : 

*'  How  is  the  Emperor  ?  Well,  I  hope.  Did  you  see  him 
before  you  left  ?  " 

During  the  first  few  years  of  my  service  at  court, 
William  II.  did  not  come  to  Vienna  ;  but  it  was  only  force 
of  circumstances  that  prevented  him  from  visiting  Francis 
Joseph. 

All  the  more  memorable  was  the  Emperor's  visit  to 
Berlin  in  May,  1900,  for  the  coming-of-age  celebrations  of 
the  German  Crown  Prince.  On  his  return  Francis  Joseph 
definitely  declared  that  in  view  of  his  advancing  years  this 
would  be  his  last  ofiicial  visit  abroad. 

I  should  like  to  give  special  prominence  to  a  remark  of  the 
Emperor  Francis  Joseph  during  the  early  years  of  my  service 
at  the  court.  In  the  spring  of  1 901  the  sovereign  had  gone 
to  Budapest  and  GodoUo,  and  one  evening  the  conversation 
turned  to  the  subject  of  the  South  African  war  which  had 
just  ended.  Someone  at  the  table  made  a  remark  about 
the  Emperor  William's  much  discussed  telegram  to  Kriiger, 
President  of  the  Transvaal,  which  might  only  too  easily 
have  been  construed  as  a  challenge  to  England.  "  That 
was  not  the  meaning  of  the  telegram  at  all,"  Francis  Joseph 
interposed  warmly.  "  It  was  merely  a  quite  natural  and 
human  recognition  of  the  incomparable  bravery  of  the 
Dutch  Boers.  No  other  construction  can  be  put  upon  it, 
because  I  know  only  too  well  that  the  German  Eiwperor^s  one 
thought  is  always  the  maintenance  oj  'peace.''^ 

Francis  Joseph  had  the  greatest  confidence  in  William  II.'s 
love  of  peace  ;  it  seemed  to  him  the  sheet-anchor  of  Austria's 
destiny. 

Strangely  enough,  my  first  experience  of  a  meeting  between 
the  two  monarchs  was  on  foreign  soil,  at  the  funeral  ceremonies 
of  King  Albert  of  Saxony  in  Dresden.  King  Albert  was  one 
of  Francis  Joseph's  oldest  and  most  esteemed  friends  and  the 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

Emperor  felt  that  he  could  not  fail  to  be  present  personally 
to  do  him  the  last  honours. 

Francis  Joseph  arrived  in  Dresden  on  the  morning  of  the 
funeral ;  William  II.  did  not  arrive  until  immediately  before 
the  ceremony.  The  greeting  between  the  two  monarchs 
was  so  warm  that  I  have  never  forgotten  it.  It  impressed  me 
all  the  more  as  Francis  Joseph  had  only  paid  quite  perfunctory 
visits  to  the  members  of  the  Saxon  Royal  House  during  the 
morning  and  early  afternoon  and  had  taken  very  little  notice 
of  the  numerous  foreign  princes  present  in  Dresden,  confining 
himself  to  a  formal  leaving  of  cards.  He  was  waiting  all  day 
for  William  II.,  and  until  Francis  Joseph's  departure  the  two 
Emperors  were  never  apart.  William  II.  kept  at  the  side  of 
his  faithful  friend  and  when  they  were  taking  leave  of  one 
another  the  German  Emperor  called  out  : 
"  We  will  meet  again  soon  in  Vienna." 

And  Francis  Joseph  replied  cordially  : 

"  Yes,  do  come.  It  will  give  me  great  pleasure.  The 
sooner  you  come  the  better  I  shall  be  pleased." 

But  it  was  not  until  September,  1903,  that  William  II. 
came  to  the  Hofburg  in  Vienna.  Here  the  two  monarchs 
reiterated  their  declarations  of  loyal  friendship.  This  time 
they  were  all  the  more  significant  because  Edward  VII.,  the 
King  of  England,  had  recently  been  in  Vienna  as  the  guest  of 
the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph,  and  the  Czar  Nicholas  II.  of 
Russia  was  expected  the  following  week  in  Schonbrunn  and 
Miirzsteg. 

One  of  the  objects  of  this  visit  of  William  II.  to  Vienna  was 
to  display  to  the  world  the  firmness  of  the  alliance  between 
Austria-Hungary  and  Germany.  This  was  made  clear  not 
only  by  the  personal  intercourse  of  the  two  Emperors  but  by 
the  toasts  that  they  exchanged  at  table  and  the  comments 
of  the  press  of  both  countries  on  William's  presence  in  Vienna, 

My  friend  Major  von  Biilow,  military  attache  to  the 
German  Embassy  in  Vienna,  said  to  me  during   this   visit : 

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Francis  Joseph's  Foreign  Relations 

"  We  are  on  the  eve  of  great  happenings  which  at  any  moment 
may  call  for  important  decisions.  That  is  why  my  Emperor's 
presence  here  was  necessary  to  stiffen  the  backbone  of  the  rulers 
of  Austria-Hungary  by  personal  conference  and,  if  necessary, 
to  keep  them  up  to  the  scratch."  Biilow  was  referring  to  the 
assassination  of  the  King  and  Queen  of  Serbia  in  Belgrade  in 
the  night  of  the  13th  June,  1903,  which,  as  he  emphatically 
asserted  at  the  time  in  Vienna,  should  have  been  followed  by 
an  immediate  invasion  of  Serbia  by  Austro-Hungarian  troops, 
and  the  occupation  of  Belgrade  and  all  important  places 
on  the  right  banks  of  the  Danube  and  the  Save  so  that  the 
Hapsburg  Monarchy  would  have  the  deciding  voice  in  future 
developments.  When  the  Foreign  Minister,  Count  Goluch- 
owski,  did  nothing  and  left  Serbia  an  absolutely  free  hand, 
Biilow  could  scarcely  contain  his  anger  and  coined  the  mauvais 
mot  which  had  a  long  run  in  Viennese  society  :  "  Goluchowski 
has  even  slept  through  the  loudest  call  of  modern  times." 

In  connection  with  this  visit  of  the  German  Emperor  to 
Vienna  I  may  mention  that,  as  was  the  case  with  all  official 
visits  of  foreign  potentates  to  Vienna,  everything  down  to  the 
slightest  detail  was  carried  through  according  to  a  programme 
drawn  up  beforehand  by  the  Controller  of  the  Household's 
department  in  co-operation  with  the  court  in  question 
(or  through  its  representatives  in  Vienna),  and  approved  by 
the  Emperor  ;  it  was  then  printed  and  forwarded  to  all 
places  and  persons  concerned.  Once  approved  this  pro- 
gramme was  unalterable  ;  it  covered  the  whole  visit  from 
the  moment  of  arrival  to  the  moment  of  departure,  contained 
detailed  instructions  on  every  point,  as,  for  instance,  the 
quartering  of  the  suite  and  servants ;  in  short,  nothing  was 
left  to  chance. 

The  precision  with  which  these  programmes  were  drawn 
up  and  carried  through  at  the  court  of  Vienna  was  justly 
famed  throughout  the  world  ;  there  were  no  questions,  no 
flurrj',  and  mistakes  were  simply  unheard  of. 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

Nearly  three  years  passed  before  the  German  Emperor 
again  came  to  the  Vienna  Hofburg  in  June,  1906. 

Meanwhile  the  Russo-Japanese  war  had  begun  and  ended 
and  left  innumerable  burning  questions  of  world  politics  to  be 
settled  up.  In  August,  1905,  King  Edward  VII.  had  been  to 
Ischl  in  order  (as  I  heard  definitely  from  the  members  of  his 
suite)  to  make  tangible  proposals  to  the  Emperor  Francis 
Joseph  with  a  view  to  loosening  the  alliance  with  Germany. 
The  obvious  reason  for  this  was  that  at  the  end  of  October, 
1904,  the  idea  of  an  entente  betweei;  Russia,  Germany  and 
France  against  possible  threats  or  aggression  on  the  part 
of  England  and  Japan,  had  been  considered  by  the  Emperors 
William  II.  and  Nicholas  II.  It  was  on  account  of  this 
tentative  proposal  that  France  had  suddenly  dropped  the 
acknowledged  champion  of  the  Anglo-French  alliance,  Del- 
casse,  a  step  which  had  caused  the  German  Emperor  and  the 
Czar  to  regard  the  project  of  a  continental  ring  against 
England  as  opportune.  Edward  VII.  was  exerting  himself 
deliberately  to  secure  the  isolation  of  Germany  and  began  by 
bringing  pressure  to  bear  on  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph. 
In  Ischl  he  met  with  no  success,  but  on  the  other  hand  during 
the  following  winter,  he  induced  France  to  refuse  to  join  a 
Russo-German  coalition  and  at  the  same  time  persuaded 
Russia  to  turn  her  back  on  Germany  and  ally  herself  with  the 
western  powers.  Naturally  Francis  Joseph  expected  that 
the  Emperor  William  would  bestir  himself,  in  fact,  whatever 
men  may  say,  he  needed  the  direct  support  of  his  ally  to 
meet  the  further  advances  of  Edward  VII.  with  the  necessary 
determination. 

This  was  why  the  visit  to  Vienna  in  June,  1906,  when 
another  brilliant  reception  was  prepared  for  William  II., 
announced  unmistakably  to  the  world  the  firmness  of  the 
alliance  between  Germany  and  the  Danube  Monarchy. 

The  importance  that  Francis  Joseph  attached  to  it  is 
apparent  from  a  conversation  between  the  Emperor  and  his 

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IFacing  p.  224 


Francis  Joseph's  Foreign  Relations 

daughter,  Princess  Gisela  of  Bavaria,  in  the  course  of  which 
he  said  :  "  It  has  done  me  good  to  shake  hands  once  more  with 
the  Emperor  :  in  the  present  times,  peaceful  on  the  surface 
but  stormy  below,  we  cannot  meet  too  often  to  assure  each 
other,  eye  to  eye,  how  sincerely  we  both  desire  feace  and  'peace 
alone.  In  this  endeavour  we  can  indeed  rely  on  mutual 
loyalty.  He  would  no  more  think  oj  leaving  me  in  the  lurch  than 
I  himP 

And  when,  on  the  sunny  spring  morning  of  the  7th  May, 
1908,  William  II.  arrived  at  Schonbrunn,  at  the  head  of  all 
the  princes  of  the  Federation  with  the  exception  of  the 
Grand  Duke  of  Hesse — and  accompanied  by  the  mayor  of 
Hamburg,  to  bring  Germany's  congratulations  on  the  Em- 
peror's diamond  jubilee,  he  gave  utterance  to  a  declaration 
of  allegiance  almost  unprecedented  in  its  sincerity  and 
eloquence.  Nothing  could  have  given  his  aged  ally  greater 
happiness.  Many  years  afterwards  the  Emperor  recalled  this 
moving  moment,  even  in  the  middle  of  the  world  war,  when 
Field-Marshal  von  Mackensen  stopped  in  Vienna  on  his  way 
to  Serbia  in  September,  1915,  and  a  luncheon  was  given  in 
his  honour  at  Schonbrunn.  He  referred  to  this  speech  with 
obvious  emotion  :  "  It  was  a  splendid  moment,  perhaps  the 
most  splendid  of  my  life.  At  any  rate  the  last  happy  one,  for 
since  then  nothing  but  evil  has  befallen  us." 

After  this  sincere  expression  of  congratulation  and  good 
wishes  by  the  Emperor  William  on  behalf  of  the  German 
princes,  there  set  in  for  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  a  period 
of  trial  which  lasted  almost  without  interruption  until  the 
end  of  his  life. 

On  the  9th  June,  1908,  came  the  meeting  of  Edward  VII. 
and  Nicholas  II.  at  Reval  to  determine  the  attitude  of 
England  and  Russia  to  the  Balkan  question  so  that  the  English 
king  could  close  the  ring  round  Germany.  Whether  Austria- 
Hungary  was  to  be  drawn  into  this  ring  that  far-sighted 
diplomat,  Edward  VII.,  left  to  the  decision  of  Francis  Joseph. 

225  15 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

In  August,  1908,  he  again  came — for  the  last  time — to 
Ischl  and  categorically  called  upon  the  Emperor  to  declare 
himself  either  for  or  against  England. 

Francis  Joseph  remained  unswervingly  faithful  to  the 
alliance  with  Germany. 

The  consequences  of  this  were  soon  felt  in  Austria  ;  the 
annexation  of  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina  in  August,  1908,  brought 
the  first  of  those  difficult  and  dangerous  crises  which  were  to 
find  their  terrible  final  solution  six  years  later  in  the  world  war. 
The  unreserved  mutual  trust  and  unshakable  friendship  of 
the  Emperors  Francis  Joseph  and  William  enabled  them  in 
May,  1909,  after  many  efforts,  once  again  to  clear  the  political 
horizon  of  Europe.  Accompanied  by  the  Empress  Augusta 
Victoria,  William  II.  a  few  weeks  later  appeared  in  Vienna  and 
this  time  was  greeted,  not  only  by  his  old  friend  and  ally,  but 
by  the  entire  population  of  Vienna  with  almost  unprecedented 
warmth  and  enthusiasm.  Since  his  last  visit  Francis  Joseph 
had  been  very  lonely,  and  he  pressed  his  trusted  ally  to  come 
to  the  grand  manoeuvres  in  Moravia  so  that  he  might  soon 
have  the  pleasure  of  his  company  once  more. 

Accordingly,  in  September,  1909,  William  II.  was  a  guest 
of  Manoeuvre  Head  Quarters  at  Gross-Meseritsch.  He  came 
with  a  large  and  brilliant  suite.  They  were  the  last  manoeuvres 
attended  by  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph.  Whether  he  had  a 
premonition  of  this,  or  was  depressed  by  the  fact  that  the 
anniversary  of  the  Empress  Ehzabeth's  death — the  loth 
September — fell  during  the  manoeuvres,  or  by  the  uncdifying 
spectacle  that  Conrad's  new  system  must  have  presented  to 
the  German  Emperor,  his  mood  was  this  time  quite  different 
from  what  was  usual  when  he  was  with  William  II.  The 
old  monarch  was  taciturn,  monosyllabic,  gloomy  ;  not  until 
the  leave-taking  did  his  usual  cordiality  return.  During 
these  days  it  struck  me  that  his  mind  was  elsewhere. 

Be  this  as  it  may,  he  was  by  no  means  cheerful,  especially 
on  the  tragic  anniversary.     In  the  early  morning  a  mass  for  the 

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Francis  Joseph's  Foreign  Relations 

dead  was  said  in  the  castle  of  Gross-Meseritsch  in  the 
Emperor's  presence.  The  Emperor  William,  with  his  staff, 
had  meanwhile  gone  on  to  the  manoeuvre  ground,  whither 
Francis  Joseph  followed  him  after  the  mass. 

As  the  ordinary  dinner  in  the  court  dining  tent  was  fixed 
for  the  late  afternoon,  a  substantial  hot  lunch  was  provided  by 
the  court  kitchen  for  the  German  Emperor  and  his  suite  on 
the  manoeuvre  field.  This  arrangement  did  not  at  all  please 
Francis  Joseph,  who  cared  little  for  creature  comforts  and 
always  liked  to  appear  before  his  troops  as  soldier  and  sovereign 
only.     It  may  have  contributed  to  increase  his  ill-humour. 

Scarcely  had  the  two  Emperors  met  on  the  manoeuvre 
ground  when  several  waggons  belonging  to  the  court  kitchen 
appeared  and  began  to  unpack ;  a  tent  was  pitched  and  a 
small,  well-laden  table  set  up.  As  soon  as  Francis  Joseph 
saw  these  preparations  he  took  a  hurried  leave  of  the  Emperor 
William  and  rode  off  with  his  staff,  to  which  I  belonged. 
When  out  of  hearing  of  the  Germans  the  old  Emperor  turned 
to  us  and  said  with  a  brusqueness  which  was  quite  unusual 
to  him,  "  Let's  get  out  of  this ;  this  feast  business  is  not  for 
us,"  and  set  off  at  a  gallop  across  country,  over  stubble  and 
ploughed  fields. 

The  two  monarchs  did  not  meet  again  that  day  until  the 
dinner  in  the  afternoon  ;  even  then  Francis  Joseph  sat  silent 
and  brooding  and  hardly  took  any  part  in  the  conversation. 
I  was  sorry  to  see  a  more  or  less  innocent  and  harmless  affair 
produce  such  an  atmosphere  of  discord.  On  the  following 
day  Francis  Joseph  was  again  in  good  spirits,  and  when  he 
took  leave  of  William  II.  at  the  end  of  the  manoeuvres  the 
customary  cordiality  had  returned  and  once  more  the  old 
Emperor,  with  tears  in  his  eyes,  called  out  to  his  departing 
guest :   "  We  must  meet  again  soon,  very  soon." 

A  month  after  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  had  celebrated 
his  eightieth  birthday,  William  II.  came  to  Schonbrunn  on 
the  20th  September  with  the  Empress  and  three  of  his  sons 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

to  congratulate  his  old  friend  and  ally  in  person.  The  visit 
lasted  several  days  and  was  the  last  official  visit  of  the  German 
Emperor  to  Vienna. 

One  of  the  most  noteworthy  features  of  this  visit  was  the 
ceremonious  reception  of  the  German  Emperor  by  the  muni- 
cipal council  in  the  Vienna  Rathaus.  In  reply  to  a  toast  of 
welcome  William  II.  made  the  famous  speech  in  which  he 
referred  to  the  dangers  that  threatened  from  every  side  and 
alluded,  in  what  have  since  become  winged  words,  to  "  shining 
armour."     All  Vienna  was  thrilled. 

Francis  Joseph  alone  did  not  share  the  universal  enthu- 
siasm ;  the  speech  of  the  Emperor  William  was  by  no  means 
to  his  liking.  He  revealed  his  anxiety  to  a  small  and  intimate 
circle  :  "  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  German  Emperor's  tem- 
perament is  not  getting  the  better  of  him  again.  As  a  matter 
of  fact  he  is  just  as  anxious  to  maintain  peace  as  I,  but  this 
bold  boasting  about  the  sharpness  of  the  German  sword 
seems  to  me  dangerous.  In  countries  where  feeling  is 
unfriendly  to  us — that  means  almost  everywhere — such 
words  may  only  too  easily  be  misunderstood  or  deliberately 
misconstrued.  Europe  to-day  is  like  a  powder  cask  ;  we  must 
be  careful  and  not  scatter  sparks  about  carelessly." 

This  is  the  secret  of  the  great  difference  between  these 
two  monarchs ;  Francis  Joseph,  cautious,  moderate,  solitary, 
never  coming  out  of  himself,  watching  the  course  of  events 
from  a  position  doubtless  too  far  removed  from  the  world, 
and  scarcely  ever  exploiting  unhesitatingly  the  opportunities 
they  offered ;  William  II.,  impulsive,  full  of  initiative,  self- 
reliant,  taking  much,  possibly  too  much,  into  his  own  unaided 
hands,  constantly  and  unhesitatingly  throwing  in  his  own 
personality  to  turn  the  scale.  Theoretically  there  was 
justification  for  the  conclusion  that  Francis  Joseph  I.  and 
William  II.  were  an  ideal  complement  to  each  other  and 
that  the  firm,  loyal  alliance  of  these  two  rulers — it  was  certainly 
that — seemed  destined  to  secure  for  Europe  the  strongest 

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Francis  Joseph's  Foreign  Relations 

safeguard  against  any  violent  storm  that  the  troubled  times 
might  bring.  In  practice  the  results  were  the  exact  opposite. 
The  Emperors  Francis  Joseph  and  William  led  their  empires 
into  the  titanic  world  struggle  from  which  they  emerged,  the 
one  overthrown  and  humiliated,  the  other  no  longer  a  compo- 
site state  but  a  heap  of  ruins.  Why  ? — ^To  this  question  I 
give  the  following  answer,  based  rather  on  intuition  than 
deliberate  reflection  :  Francis  Joseph  I.  had  always  regarded 
the  Hapsburg  monarchy  as  the  pre-eminent  German  state  of 
Central  Europe,  a  position  it  had  held  in  the  fifties  of  the 
past  century,  or  in  the  Metternich  era,  but  from  which  it 
had  long  since  fallen,  while  William  II.  saw  in  Germany 
the  greatest  power  of  the  Old  World,  perhaps  even  of  the 
whole  world,  a  position  it  had  not  yet  by  any  means 
attained. 

Francis  Joseph's  long  years  of  bitter,  varied  experience 
made  him  inclined  to  suspect  that  the  Emperor  William 
might  be  carrying  his  ideas  too  far,  and  so  exposing  himself 
to  a  disaster  which  would  shatter  not  only  his  own  dreams, 
but  those  of  his  ally  also.  Hence  his  pretty  frank  denuncia- 
tion of  William  II.'s  ardent  speech  in  the  Vienna  Rathaus, 
which,  together  with  the  splendour  of  the  German  Emperor's 
visit  in  September,  1910,  was  long  discussed  in  the  Austrian 
capital  with  the  greatest  enthusiasm. 

Thus  the  autumn  and  winter  passed,  and  in  the  spring 
of  191 1  Francis  Joseph  was  attacked  by  such  virulent  and 
stubborn  bronchial  catarrh  that  only  after  a  sharp  struggle 
was  the  rapidly  increasing  severity  of  his  illness  checked, 
and  the  aged  Emperor  kept  alive.  As  the  malady  left  behind 
it  permanent  ill-effects  it  became  necessary  to  take  special 
care  of  the  Emperor,  and  William  II.  was  the  first  to  bear  that 
necessity  in  mind  during  his  next  visit  to  Schonbrunn. 

Henceforward,  until  the  outbreak  of  the  war,  the  Emperor 
William  II.  came  every  year  to  Vienna,  but  always  quite 
privately,  and  always  insisted  on  the  absence  of  any  court 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

ceremony.  As  he  used  to  say  he  wanted  "  to  say  good  morn- 
ing to  the  Emperor  and  nothing  else."  These  visits  gave 
the  Emperors  opportunity  for  long  confidential  talks.  These 
were  all  the  more  necessary  for  Francis  Joseph  as  the  political 
horizon  was  yearly  growing  darker  and  darker  for  the  allies, 
and  the  terrible  happenings  we  have  lately  witnessed  were 
already  beginning  to  cast  their  dark  shadows  before  them. 

According  to  my  own  observation  the  Emperor  William's 
love  of  his  family,  trust  in  God  and  loyalty  were  the  qualities 
which  endeared  him  to  Francis  Joseph  ;  I  was  unable  to 
discover  what  was  the  Emperor's  opinion  of  the  other 
characteristics  of  William  II.,  what  he  thought  of  his  capacity 
as  a  ruler,  his  mental  gifts  and  leadership.  In  the  endeavour  to 
obtain  information  I  questioned  Count  Paar  directly  on  this 
subject  at  Christmas,  1915.  The  Count  had  deservedly 
enjoyed  the  Emperor's  confidence  for  more  than  a  quarter  of 
a  century  and  would  therefore  know. 

He  answered  meditatively  :  "  This  is  not  the  first  time  I 
have  been  asked  the  question,  and  I  have  never  been  able 
to  give  an  answer,  for  the  Emperor  has  never  spoken  of  the 
Emperor  William's  capacities,  opinions,  plans  or  intentions. 
But  one  thing  is  certain  :  'The  Emferor  William  is  jar  more 
sympathetic  to  Francis  Josefh  than  any  other  sovereign  with 
whom  he  has  had  personal  relations,  and  I  can  jurther  assure 
you  that  our  Emperor  has  Jull  confidence  in  the  Emferor  of 
Germany.  With  the  Emferor  Francis  Joseph  that  is  saying  a 
great  dealP 

All  this  meant  that  the  influence  of  William  II.  was 
continually  gaining  ground  until  at  last  Francis  Joseph 
scarcely  dared  to  take  a  single  step  in  foreign  politics  without 
first  consulting  the  opinion  of  his  friend.  This  state  of 
things  was  not  regarded  with  universal  favour  in  Vienna  ;  but 
it  met  with  more  approval  in  Budapest  where  the  forcefulness 
of  William  II.  was  admired.  The  leading  Protestant  circles 
of  Hungary,   who  felt   themselves   drawn   towards  him   by 

230 


Francis  Joseph's  Foreign  Relations 

religious  ties,  thought  they  had  found  in  the  German  Emperor 
a  patron  particularly  favourable  to  their  interests.  In  the 
immediate  entourage  of  the  Austrian  Emperor  this  dependence 
on  Berlin,  which  was  yearly  becoming  more  marked,  was  not 
approved  of,  especially  by  Count  Paar.  I  heard  him  several 
times  say  angrily  : 

"  We're  no  longer  capable  of  independent  action  ;  every- 
thing has  to  go  as  the  wire-pullers  in  Potsdam  wish."  Paar 
was  always  afraid  that  this  system  would  become  dangerous 
to  Austria  and  might  compromise  her  future.  Was  not  this 
opinion  ultimately  proved  right  ? 

There  is  no  doubt  that  this  feeling  of  loyal  friendship 
between  the  two  monarchs  was  shared  by  their  families. 
The  German  Crown  Prince  and  in  later  years  his  wife  also 
were  frequent  guests  at  the  Vienna  Hofburg,  and  the  Em- 
peror Francis  Joseph  was  always  cordial  and  attentive  to 
the  pair.  For  a  time  a  rumour  was  current  that  the  Em- 
peror had  hoped  to  see  his  granddaughter  Elizabeth  Marie, 
the  only  child  of  Crown  Prince  Rudolph,  married  to  the 
German  Crown  Prince.  I  never  really  believed  it,  if  only 
because  Francis  Joseph  knew  his  granddaughter  too  well  to 
imagine  that  she  was  well  suited  to  be  the  wife  of  the  German 
Crown  Prince  and  future  Empress  of  Germany. 

The  Emperor  was  exceptionally  fond  of  Prince  Joachim, 
his  godson.  Among  the  more  distant  relatives  of  the  Ger- 
man Emperor,  Prince  Albrecht  of  Prussia,  for  many  years 
Regent  of  the  Duchy  of  Brunswick,  found  great  favour  with 
the  Emperor.  When  Prince  Albrecht  died,  Francis  Joseph 
telegraphed  to  his  son  messages  of  heartfelt  sympathy,  in 
which  he  gave  eloquent  expression  of  his  deep  affection  for 
the  deceased  prince.  In  addition  the  Emperor  sent  his  son- 
in-law,  the  Archduke  Francis  Salvator,  to  represent  him  at 
the  funeral,  together  with  a  strong  detachment  of  officers  of 
the  6th  Austro-Hungarian  Dragoon  Regiment  of  which  Prince 
Albrecht  had  been  colonel. 

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And  so  countless  threads  were  spun  between  the  Haps- 
burgs  and  Hohenzollerns,  and  it  was  only  religious  differences 
which  prevented  the  two  Imperial  houses  from  further 
strengthening  their  alliance  by  intermarriage. 

It  was  otherwise  in  the  case  of  the  other  German  royal 
houses,  of  which  the  most  important  was  Bavaria. 

Francis  Joseph's  mother,  the  Archduchess  Sophia,  had 
been  a  Bavarian  Princess  and  the  Emperor's  wife,  the  Empress 
Elizabeth,  was  a  Bavarian  Duchess.  Further,  the  Emperor's 
eldest  daughter  Gisela  had  married  Prince  Leopold  of 
Bavaria,  son  of  the  Prince  Regent  Luitpold  and  brother  of 
King  Louis  III.  The  house  of  Wittelsbach  therefore  held 
a  high  place  in  the  Emperor's  regard.  His  affection  for  it 
was  usually  expressed  privately,  but  for  that  reason  was  all 
the  more  notorious.  The  Prince  Regent  Luitpold  enjoyed 
the  Emperor's  special  regard,  although  his  nature  tended 
to  make  him  averse  rather  than  partial  to  demonstrations 
of  affection,  particularly  as  he  was  more  than  nine  years  older 
than  the  Emperor.  The  latter  did  not  allow  himself  to  be 
put  off  by  the  Prince  Regent's  curious  manner.  For  instance, 
when  Prince  Luitpold  celebrated  his  eightieth  birthday  in 
March,  1901  in  the  bosom  of  his  family,  the  Emperor  did 
not  wait  for  an  invitation  but  simply  travelled  incognito  to 
Munich,  where  his  welcome  was  all  the  more  hearty. 

The  Prince  Regent  had  for  years  been  in  the  habit  of 
spending  a  few  weeks  in  the  spring  with  his  sister,  the  Duchess 
Adelgunde  of  Modena,  in  Vienna.  Scarcely  had  the  Prince 
Regent  arrived  when  the  Emperor  would  hasten  to  see  him 
in  the  palace  in  the  Beatrixgasse.  This  first  visit  would  be 
followed  by  others  of  an  equally  informal  nature,  an  infor- 
mality which  also  characterized  the  dinners  given  in  honour 
of  the  Prince  Regent  at  Schonbrunn. 

The  Emperor  also  had  feelings  of  a  sincere  friendship 
for  the  Prince  Regent's  son,  afterwards  King  Louis  III.  of 
Bavaria,  and  I  repeatedly  noticed  that  whenever  the  character 

232 


Francis  Joseph's  Foreign  Relations 

of  that  prince  was  under  discussion  the  Emperor  at  once 
intervened  to  praise  his  culture  and  kindly  nature. 

The  Emperor  was  not  particularly  attached  to  the  Duke 
Charles  Theodore,  his  brother-in-law,  nor  to  the  duke's 
sister,  the  Countess  von  Trani.  On  the  other  hand  the 
monarch  came  under  the  spell  of  her  second  sister  Marie,  the 
once  beautiful  Queen  of  Naples,  who  bore  such  a  striking 
resemblance  to  the  Empress  Elizabeth.  The  personality  of 
this  witty  and  energetic  woman,  who  bore  her  misfortunes 
with  such  proud  dignity,  won  the  Emperor's  whole-hearted 
admiration.  Several  times  I  heard  him  say  that  he  could 
never  speak  too  highly  of  her  courage  and  heroism  during  the 
defence  of  Gaeta  in  the  spring  of  i860,  her  selfless  devotion 
during  all  the  subsequent  disasters,  and  the  loving  care  with 
which  for  many  years  she  tended  and  supported  her  royal 
husband,  broken  down  by  countless  adversities.  On  this 
subject  the  Emperor  would  wax  enthusiastic  in  a  way  quite 
rare  with  him.  I  particularly  remember  on  one  occasion,  at 
GodoUo,  when  after  a  visit  from  the  Countess  von  Trani, 
the  conversation  turned  to  her  sister  Queen  Marie. 

"  These  infernal  inelastic  statutes  of  my  military  Maria- 
Theresa  order,"  declared  the  Emperor,  "  won't  allow  me 
to  follow  the  example  set  by  the  Emperor  Alexander  II.  of 
Russia  forty  years  ago,  when  he  bestowed  the  order  of  Saint 
George  on  my  sister-in-law  Marie.  How  dearly  I  should 
have  liked  to  pin  the  Maria-Theresa  order  on  her  breast. 
For  this  unique  and  splendid  woman  deserves  quite 
exceptional  honours." 

In  spite  of  the  many  family  connections  that  united  the 
houses  of  Hapsburg  and  Wettin,  the  Emperor — at  any  rate 
during  my  period  of  service — had  ceased  to  feel  any  particular 
regard  for  the  Saxon  court  since  his  old  and  trusted  friend 
King  Albert  died  and  the  latter's  brother  and  successor, 
King  George,  a  few  months  after  his  accession,  became 
involved  in  the  unedifying  scandal  which  followed  the  flight 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

of  his  daughter-in-law,  the  Crown-Princess  Louise,  which 
caused  such  a  sensation.  Thanks,  probably,  to  the  influence 
of  his  eldest  daughter.  Princess  Mathilde,  he  proved  quite 
unequal  to  coping  with  the  situation,  and  the  way  he  handled 
it  gave  the  whole  incident  a  most  unpleasant  notoriety.  This 
want  of  tact  annoyed  the  Emperor  deeply ;  he  regarded 
King  George's  conduct  as  derogatory  to  the  dignity  of  the 
dynasty,  and  naturally  would  have  nothing  further  to  do 
with  him. 

The  only  time  the  Emperor  visited  him  was  when  King 
George  was  taking  a  cure  at  Gastein  in  August,  1904.  The 
meeting  of  the  two  rulers — the  Emperor  only  remained  a 
few  hours  in  Gastein — was  anything  but  cordial ;  it  left 
the  impression  that  the  Emperor  and  King  had  nothing  at 
all  to  say  to  each  other.  No  doubt  King  George's  condition 
at  that  time  was  critical.  Death  had  already  set  its  mark 
upon  him.  It  was  not  until  the  return  journey  that  the 
Emperor  regained  his  lost  spirits. 

"  The  King  is  dying,"  said  the  Emperor.  "  He  will  not 
survive  the  winter.  He's  an  old  and  broken  man.  Why 
didn't  he  renounce  the  throne  ?  His  son  would  have  suc- 
ceeded, and  this  ghastly  scandal  about  Louise  would  have 
been  avoided.  And  what  a  mess  he  made  of.it!  It  was 
ignominious !  Dirty  linen  should  be  washed  at  home,  not 
in  public.  Such  things  can  only  happen  where  things  are  run 
by  a  sour  old  spinster  like  Princess  Mathilde.  They  can  never 
go  right  where  hatred  and  lust  for  revenge  take  the  place 
of  intelligence  and  kindness." 

King  George's  sons,  the  prince  who  became  King  Frederick 
Augustus  III.  and  Prince  John  George,  displeased  the  Emperor 
Francis  Joseph  by  their  overbearing  manner,  and  the  Em- 
peror, as  I  know  from  occasional  remarks  I  overheard,  thought 
little  of  their  brains.  As  early  as  July,  1902,  when  Frederick 
Augustus,  then  Crown  Prince,  visited  Ischl  on  an  official  mission 
as  the  representative  of  his  royal  father,  it  was  easy  to  see 

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Francis  Joseph's  Foreign  Relations 

that  the  Emperor  had  no  high  opinion  of  him.  Though  he 
treated  the  Saxon  Crown  Prince  with  all  necessary  civility, 
that  was  as  far  as  he  got.  This  reminds  me  of  a  little  in- 
cident that  occurred  at  dinner  in  the  Imperial  villa  at  Ischl 
on  the  day  of  the  Crown  Prince's  arrival.  Frederick  Augustus 
was  in  the  habit  of  talking  in  a  very  loud  and  rasping  voice 
which  contrasted  violently  with  the  quiet,  subdued  talk 
of  the  other  guests.  The  Saxon  Crown  Prince  adopted  this 
tone  even  when  conversing  with  the  Emperor.  All  at  once 
the  old  monarch  turned  to  him  and  said  brusquely  : 

"  Why  do  you  shout  so  ?  I'm  not  deaf."  This  sharp 
reproof,  administered  in  a  tone  and  with  an  expression  very 
uncommon  with  Francis  Joseph,  usually  a  model  of  courtesy, 
quite  surprised  those  who  knew  him. 

In  speaking  of  the  Emperor's  relations  with  the  Wiirtem- 
berg  court  one  must  distinguish  clearly  between  the  Protes- 
tant royal  house  and  that  of  the  Catholic  dukes.  The  latter 
were  closely  related  by  birth  and  marriage  with  the  Haps- 
burgs,  so  that  naturally  its  members  were  in  close  and  con- 
stant touch  with  the  old  sovereign. 

On  the  other  hand,  at  any  rate  in  my  time,  the  Emperor 
very  rarely  met  the  King  and  Queen  of  Wiirtemberg. 

But  something  must  also  have  happened  earlier  on  to 
make  the  relations  between  the  Emperor  and  the  King  of 
Wiirtemberg  somewhat  strained.  Count  Paar,  whom  I 
questioned  on  this  subject,  thought  that  the  estrangement 
might  date  back  to  February,  1893,  when  the  King  of  Wiir- 
temberg paid  an  official  visit  to  Vienna  for  the  marriage  of 
Duke  Albrecht  to  the  Archduchess  Margaret  Sophia,  a 
daughter  of  the  Archduke  Charles  Louis.  That  visit  was 
never  returned  at  Stuttgart  by  the  Emperor.  The  King 
never  forgave  Francis  Joseph. 

This  may  certainly  be  the  true  explanation. 

While  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  scarcely  ever  came 
into  contact  with  the  Grand  Duke  of  Baden  he  was  very 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

fond  of  his  very  intelligent  nephew,  Prince  Max  of  Baden,  as 
well  as  his  wife,  the  eldest  daughter  of  the  Duke  of  Cumber- 
land, whom  the  Emperor  had  known  from  her  childhood. 
Accompanied  by  her  delightful  children  she  spent  a  few  weeks 
nearly  every  summer  with  her  parents  at  Gmunden  and  was 
very  often  a  favourite  guest  of  the  Emperor  at  Ischl,  as  also 
was  the  Duke  of  Cumberland's  second  daughter,  the  wife 
of  the  Grand  Duke  of  Mecklenburg-Schwerin. 

To  them  Francis  Joseph  extended  the  feelings  of  close 
friendship  he  felt  for  Duke  Ernest  Augustus  of  Cumberland. 
The  latter,  after  his  father  King  George  V.  of  Hanover 
had  abdicated  in  1866  the  victim  of  his  stubborn  loyalty 
to  the  alliance  with  Austria,  lived  until  his  death  partly 
in  his  splendid  Austrian  castle  at  Gmunden,  partly  at  his 
Vienna  palace — ^known  as  "  Lothringerhaus  " — near  Schon- 
brunn.  His  wife.  Queen  Marie,  and  his  son,  the  Duke  of 
Cumberland,  who  had  married  the  youngest  daughter  of 
King  Christian  IX.  of  Denmark,  lived  with  him. 

The  Emperor  therefore  regarded  it  as  an  obligation  of 
honour  to  be  extremely  cordial  to  the  Duke  of  Cumberland 
and  his  family,  and  their  close  proximity  gave  every  oppor- 
tunity for  constant  meetings  between  the  Guelphs  and 
Hapsburgs.  At  nearly  every  court  ceremony  at  which  the 
Cumberland  family  appeared  in  Vienna  the  Emperor  took 
the  Duchess  in  on  his  arm,  and  he  never  neglected  an  oppor- 
tunity of  showing  his  exceptional  regard  and  cordial  friend- 
ship for  the  Duke. 

Duke  Ernest  Augustus  regarded  himself  as  a  real  Austrian  ; 
Vienna  and  Gmunden  had  become  his  second  home ;  he 
always  wore  the  uniform  of  the  42nd  Infantry  Regiment, 
with  the  small  cross  of  the  military  division  of  the  Maria- 
Theresa  order  which  he  had  worn  as  Crown  Prince  of  Han- 
over in  1866,  in  the  fierce  battle  of  Langensalza. 

As  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  was  on  the  best  possible 
terms  with  both  the  Emperor  William  II.  and  the  Duke  of 

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Francis  Joseph's  Foreign  Relations 

Cumberland,  it  often  troubled  him  to  see  these  two  estranged 
as  a  result  of  past  events,  and  for  years  he  made  efforts  to  pave 
the  way  to  reconciliation.  At  last,  in  191 3,  the  bitter  feud 
that  had  lasted  for  nearly  half  a  century  between  the  Guelphs 
and  the  HohenzoUerns  was  happily  terminated. 

Soon  after  the  tragic  death  of  his  elder  brother  as  the 
result  of  a  motor  accident,  the  Duke's  son.  Prince  Ernest 
Augustus,  now  the  only  male  heir  to  the  Dukedom,  married 
Princess  Victoria  Louise,  the  only  daughter  of  the  German 
Emperor  and  Empress.  On  the  day  of  the  marriage  he  re- 
ceived Brunswick,  the  Guelphs'  second  home,  from  his  Imperial 
father-in-law  as  his  wedding  gift.  As  Prince  he  already 
bore  its  ducal  title.  Francis  Joseph  could  not  conceal  his  satis- 
faction at  this  unexpectedly  happy  result ;  he  exchanged 
telegrams  and  letters  of  congratulation  couched  in  the  warmest 
terms  with  the  German  Emperor  and  Empress  and  the  family 
of  the  Duke  of  Cumberland  to  express  his  pleasure  at  the 
termination  of  the  unhappy  feud. 

This  reconciliation  of  his  two  friends  had  been  one  of 
the  Emperor's  dearest  wishes,  and  nothing  had  given  him  so 
much  pleasure  for  years  as  the  visit  to  the  Emperor's  villa 
at  Ischl  of  the  young  Duke  of  Brunswick  with  his  charming 
bride  during  their  summer  visit  to  Gmunden.  They  were 
accompanied  by  the  Duke's  parents  with  their  unmarried 
youngest  daughter  Princess  Olga. 

But  once  again  Providence  saw  fit  to  mar  a  happy  occasion 
with  evil  tidings.  For  the  day  on  which  the  visit  took  place 
was  the  fateful  25th  July,  1914.  Scarcely  had  the  Duke  of 
Brunswick  with  his  wife  and  the  family  of  the  Duke  of  Cum- 
berland left  Ischl  when  the  news  arrived  that  Serbia  had 
rejected  the  Austro-Hungarian  ultimatum  so  that  the  world 
war  was  inevitable. 

I  must  mention  here  that  Francis  Joseph  had  great  hopes 
of  the  young  Duke  Ernest  Augustus  of  Brunswick.  From 
many  remarks  he  made  it  was  obvious  that  he  thought  there 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

was  a  brilliant  future  in  store  for  the  Duke.  I  was  never 
able  to  explain  on  what  these  hopes  were  built  for  I  was 
convinced  that  the  great  days  of  Guelph  rule  had  departed 
never  to  return.  I  once  said  as  much  to  Count  Paar,  who 
replied : 

"  The  Emperor  takes  a  very  different  view.  He  is  always 
saying  that  although  the  Guelphs  are  now  beneath  and  the 
HohenzoUerns  on  top,  this  situation  may  one  day  be  reversed. 
I'm  not  at  all  clear  as  to  how  that's  to  come  about  but  he 
insists  that  as  the  senior  German  princely  house,  the  Guelphs 
have  still  an  important  part  to  play  in  the  future." 

I  even  gradually  acquired  the  impression  that  the  Emperor 
did  not  think  it  impossible  that  a  Guelph  might  one  day 
again  wear  the  German  imperial  crown.  He  saw  great 
danger  to  the  HohenzoUerns  in  their  growing  hostility  to 
the  western  powers  and  Russia.  Such  views — before  the 
world  war — were  unquestionably  very  remarkable.  But  they 
were  the  Emperor's. 

With  the  other  German  Princes  the  Emperor's  relations 
were  confined  to  the  formal  visits  they  paid  him  in  Vienna. 

It  had  become  the  custom  for  the  German  Imperial 
Chancellors  to  present  themselves  personally  to  the  Emperor 
Francis  Joseph  when  in  Vienna,  and  when  important  events 
were  happening  to  have  an  audience  of  him.  Prince  Biilow 
and  Herr  von  Bethmann-HoUweg  were  both  received  in  this 
way  and  the  Emperor  took  the  opportunity  for  a  prolonged 
discussion  of  the  political  situation. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  the  Emperor's  friendly  feelings 
for  Germany  were  reflected  in  his  relations  with  the  German 
representatives  in  Vienna.  The  German  ambassadors  in 
Vienna  enjoyed  a  particularly  advantageous  position  with  the 
Emperor.  They  were  always  specially  selected  for  this 
post,  for  the  Emperor  WiUiam  only  trusted  the  appoint- 
ment to  men  who  enjoyed  his  closest  confidence.  Prince 
Eulenburg,  Cavalry-General  Count  Wedel  and  finally  Herr 

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Francis  Joseph's  Foreign  Relations 

von  Tschirschky-Bogendorff.  Of  these  Count  Wedel  was 
the  most  highly  esteemed  by  the  Austrian  Emperor.  The 
distinguished,  serious-minded  general  with  his  reserved, 
straightforward  manner  was  very  much  to  Francis  Joseph's 
liking.  The  fact  that  he  was  a  soldier  also  made  him  more 
congenial  to  the  monarch  than  his  predecessor  and  successor. 

Herr  von  Tschirschky  contrived  to  acquire  such  an 
influence  in  Vienna  that,  according  to  Count  Paar,  it  became 
impossible  to  decide  anything  without  the  consent  of  Berlin. 
To-day  it  is  frequently  said  that  Tschirschky  worked  indepen- 
dently of  Berlin  and  forced  his  own  political  ideas  upon  the 
Ballhausplatz.  It  is  certain  that  during  the  period  of  crisis 
beginning  in  1908,  and  especially  in  1914,  he  brought  heavy 
pressure  to  bear  on  Austria  in  favour  of  extreme  severity 
towards  Serbia.  As  he  was  Germany's  official  representa- 
tive in  Vienna,  however,  his  views  were  supposed  to  embody 
the  principles  which  Germany  officially  desired  the  Austro- 
Hungarian  Government  and  diplomats  to  observe.  But  it 
seems  to  be  accepted  now  that  he  was  working  for  his  own 
hand,  and  that  the  opinion  in  Berlin  was  against  making 
our  demands  too  severe. 

The  situation  unfortunately  does  not  appear  to  have 
been  realized  by  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  until  it  was 
too  late.  After  the  outbreak  of  war  there  was  a  distinct 
waning  of  the  Emperor's  confidence  in  the  German  Ambassa- 
dor, and  when  the  discussion  of  important  questions  was 
necessary  the  Emperor  William  sent  special  representatives  to 
Vienna.  It  was,  of  course,  a  slight  to  Tschirschky.  Depressed 
and  a  prey  to  physical  suffering,  he  died  in  the  Austrian 
capital  a  few  days  before  the  Emperor. 

Francis  Joseph  was  often  the  guest  of  the  German 
Embassy,  especially  during  the  time  when  Prince  Eulenburg 
and  Count  Wedel  were  in  office ;  these  were  informal  visits 
which  the  Emperor  rarely  paid  to  any  other  of  the  foreign 
embassies  in  the  capital.     In  particular  the  Emperor  never 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

failed  to  visit  the  German  Ambassador  every  year  on  January 
27,  the  birthday  of  the  Emperor  William  II.,  to  offer  his 
personal  congratulations  to  the  German  Emperor.  He 
always  wore  the  full  dress  uniform  of  a  Prussian  Field-Marshal. 
In  addition  he  used  to  send  a  telegram  of  congratulation  to 
William  II.,  and  in  the  evening  a  brilliant  banquet  was  held 
in  the  Hofburg  in  Vienna,  or  at  Schonbrunn,  during  which 
the  Emperor  emptied  a  glass  of  champagne  to  his  friend  and 
ally. 

The  Military  Attaches  to  the  German  Embassy  in  Vienna, 
as  well  as  the  Naval  Attaches,  also  received  special  proofs 
of  the  Emperor's  favour  whenever  occasion  offered.  In 
accordance  with  a  custom  which  dated  from  the  days  of  the 
Holy  Alliance,  the  German  Military  Attache  in  Vienna 
was  always  one  of  the  German  Emperor's  aides-de-camp 
and  the  Austro-Hungarian  Military  Attache  in  Berlin  had 
to  be  an  aide-de-camp  of  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph.  The 
arrangement  was  meant  to  emphasize  not  only  the  intimacy 
of  the  relations  between  the  two  rulers  but  also  the  close 
connection  between  the  military  attache  and  his  own 
sovereign  and  thus  the  importance  of  his  mission  to  the 
sovereign  to  whom  he  was  accredited. 

In  my  time  Major  von  Biilow,  and  subsequently  Major 
Count  von  Kageneck,  were  the  military  attaches  to  the 
German  Embassy  in  Vienna.  Major  Karl  Ulrich  von  Biilow, 
a  brother  of  the  Imperial  Chancellor,  Prince  Bernhard  von 
Biilow,  was  deservedly  very  highly  thought  of  by  the  Em- 
peror himself  and  those  leading  military  circles  in  Austria- 
Hungary  to  which  he  often  proved  himself  a  sound  and 
valuable  adviser. 

His  successor.  Count  von  Kageneck,  was  able  to  strengthen 
and  consolidate  the  close  relations  which  Major  von  Biilow 
had  established  with  all  the  high  functionaries  in  Vienna. 
He  also  made  himself  a  really  prominent  place  as  one  of 
the  most  popular  men  in  Viennese  society.     Kageneck  was 

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Francis  Joseph's  Foreign  Relations 

a  Catholic  and  came  from  Baden.  His  natural  South-German 
affability,  so  highly  congenial  to  the  Austrian  temperament, 
made  him  seem  simply  cut  out  for  his  post.  His  wife,  the 
daughter  of  Baron  von  Schorlemer-Lieser,  Prussian  Minister 
of  Agriculture,  contributed  not  a  little  to  make  his  position 
one  of  the  most  influential  in  Vienna. 

There  was  still  another  link  between  Francis  Joseph  and 
the  German  Empire. 

He  held  the  rank  of  a  Prussian  Field-Marshal,  Colonel- 
in-Chief  of  the  Prussian  2nd  Kaiser  Franz  Grenadier  Guards 
and  the  i6th  Prussian  Hussars  (Schleswig-Holstein)  ;  he  was 
a  member  of  the  Bavarian  13th  Infantry  Regiment,  Colonel- 
in-Chief  of  the  Saxon  2nd  Uhlan  Regiment  No.  15,  and 
of  the  Wiirtemberg  4th  Rifle  Regiment  No.  122. 

There  was  an  old  established  custom  that  in  all  these 
corps  not  only  was  every  change  of  command  announced 
to  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  in  writing,  but  the  newly 
appointed  commanding  officer  presented  himself  in  person 
to  him.  On  these  occasions  he  would  bestow  decorations 
on  both  the  newly  appointed  and  retiring  officers. 

At  his  fifty  years'  Jubilee,  which  coincided  with  his  Jubilee 
as  Colonel  of  the  2nd  Kaiser  Franz  Grenadier  Guards,  the 
Emperor  had  a  special  medal  struck,  representing  himself  in 
the  uniform  of  the  regiment,  and  this  he  had  distributed  in 
silver  to  all  officers  and  in  bronze  to  all  non-commissioned 
officers  of  the  regiment.  The  same  thing  happened  in  1901 
on  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  Emperor's  appointment 
to  the  13th  Bavarian  Infantry  Regiment. 

At  his  Diamond  Jubilee  a  special  medal  was  struck  for  all 
his  foreign  regiments,  even  the  non-German  ones,  and  pre- 
sented in  silver  to  the  officers  and  in  bronze  to  the  non- 
commissioned officers.  These  medals  were  also  presented 
in  gold  to  all  sovereigns  in  whose  armies  the  Emperor  held 
rank  and  to  all  Field-Marshals  of  those  armies,  to  wit,  the 
Prussian,  Russian  and  British. 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

Whenever  there  was  an  opportunity  for  wearing  German 
uniform  Francis  Joseph  donned  it  wilHngly  for  he  thought 
it  suited  him  and  once  smilingly  remarked  he  considered  he 
looked  better  in  it  than  in  Austrian  uniform.  In  view  of 
his  passion  for  accuracy  and  correctness  it  was  essential  to 
see  that  his  foreign  uniforms  should  be  in  accordance  with 
the  latest  regulations  down  to  the  slightest  detail.  The 
Emperor  would  not  allow  the  least  infringement.  This,  of 
course,  involved  very  considerable  expenditure  which  was 
no  slight  drain  on  his  annual  budget. 

I  specially  remember  one  incident  in  connection  with 
the  Emperor's  Prussian  uniforms.  According  to  regulations 
the  Knights  of  the  Prussian  Order  of  the  Black  Eagle  wore 
the  insignia  of  the  Grand  Cross  of  the  Order  of  the  Red 
Eagle  round  the  neck  (en  sautoir).  The  latter  order,  however, 
was  not  founded  by  William  I.  until  1861,  when  the  Emperor 
Francis  Joseph  had  already  possessed  the  Order  of  the  Black 
Eagle  for  fifteen  years.  He  therefore  added  to  the  Order 
of  the  Black  Eagle — which  consists  of  a  star  and  Grand  Cross 
ribbon  with  insignia  only* — the  cross  of  the  Order  of  the  Red 
Eagle,  first  class,  founded  by  King  Frederick  William  III. 
This  method  of  wearing  the  order  made  a  striking  combina- 
tion which  was  worn  by  no  one  else.  Francis  Joseph  loved 
to  explain  it  to  those  who  seemed  ^surprised  at  it,  and  to 
point  out  that  he  was  the  only  man  who  could  wear  the 
orders  in  that  way.  I  once  heard  him,  at  a  court  banquet, 
add  jestingly  :  "  I'm  so  old,  so  very  old,  that  I'm  no  longer 
affected  by  regulations  which  were  issued  when  my  guests 
were  in  their  cradles  or  not  even  born." 

In    the   pre-war   period   Austria-Hungary's    second    ally 

*  In  exceptional  cases  a  chain  was  added.  The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  did  not 
wear  this  because,  when  in  Prussian  uniform,  he  always  wore  the  chain  of  the  Order 
of  the  Royal  House  of  Hohenzollern.  This  was  an  exceptionally  rare  order,  which 
was  reserved  for  the  princes  of  the  house  of  Hohenzollern  and  a  very  few  other 
princes  closely  connected  with  it. 

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was  Italy.  The  Emperor's  relations  with  this  state  could 
not  be  very  intimate  because  he  did  not  know  the  Italian 
sovereign,  King  Victor  Emmanuel  III.  In  September,  1898, 
Victor  Emmanuel — then  Prince  of  Naples — represented  his 
royal  father  at  the  funeral  of  the  Empress  Elizabeth,  and 
on  this  occasion  of  course  met  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph. 
But  owing  to  the  very  nature  of  the  occasion  and  the  presence 
of  numerous  sovereigns  and  royal  personages  in  Vienna, 
which  claimed  the  old  monarch's  time  and  attention  com- 
pletely, he  had  a  very  inadequate  opportunity  for  close 
conversation  with  the  Italian  heir  or  for  forming  his  own 
opinion  of  the  prince's  personality.  Such  an  opportunity, 
especially  in  the  case  of  Victor  Emmanuel  III.,  would  cer- 
tainly have  been  welcomed  by  the  Emperor. 

Another  obstacle  that  prevented  the  Emperor  from  getting 
to  know  him  better  was  the  principle  he  conscientiously 
observed  that  a  Catholic  sovereign  could  not  visit  the  King 
of  Italy  in  his  capital,  Rome,  v^dthout  inflicting  a  slight  on 
the  Papal  Curia.  This  consideration  had  already  prevented 
him  from  returning  the  visit  of  King  Humbert  and  Queen 
Margherita  to  Vienna,  an  omission  which  naturally  led  to 
less  cordial  relations  between  the  two  ruling  houses. 

King  Humbert's  tragic  end  hit  the  old  monarch  very 
hard.  "  He  was  a  martyr  in  the  highest  sense  of  the  word," 
I  heard  him  say  about  the  dead  monarch.  "  The  Italians 
have  good  reason  to  hold  him  in  honourable  memory  for  he 
seemed  in  every  way  a  worthy  son  of  his  great  father.  The 
latter  was  my  political  enemy,  it  is  true,  but  I  am  the  first 
to  recognize  that  he  was  always  an  honourable  foe."  With 
a  sigh  Francis  Joseph  added  quietly  :  "  But  he  had  far-sighted 
and  able  colleagues."  The  complaint  that  he  himself  had 
hardly  been  so  fortunate  was  not  expressed,  but  was  implied 
only  too  plainly  in  these  words. 

In  the  same  way  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  extended 
his  whole-hearted  respect  to  King  Victor  Emmanuel  III.,  and 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

there  is  no  room  for  doubt  that  the  Emperor  deeply  regretted 
the  lack  of  an  opportunity  to  prove  it  to  the  King  himself. 
The  earnestness  and  dignity  with  which  Victor  Emmanuel  III. 
took  up  his  mission  as  a  ruler,  the  zeal  with  which  he  fulfilled 
all  his  duties  in  the  interests  of  his  people,  and,  last  but  not 
least,  his  exemplary  family  life,  won  the  admiration  of  Francis 
Joseph.  The  Emperor  was  also  deeply  gratified  that  Victor 
Emmanuel  III.  regarded  himself  as  belonging  body  and 
soul  to  his  army  and — like  the  Emperor  himself — always 
wore  military  uniform.  It  had  been  otherwise  with  King 
Humbert,  although  the  latter  had  in  his  time  distinguished 
himself  as  a  soldier  on  Italy's  battlefields.  There  was  some- 
thing else  about  King  Victor  Emmanuel  III.  which  the  Em- 
peror could  never  praise  too  highly,  I  mean  his  deep  personal 
religious  feeling  and  the  consummate  tact  with  which  he 
mastered  the  difficulties  of  his  position  with  regard  to  the 
Vatican.  Francis  Joseph  thought  that  the  Holy  Father 
ought  to  regard  it  as  a  specially  happy  stroke  of  fate  that 
thanks  to  the  conciliatory  delicacy  of  feeling  of  King  Victor 
Emmanuel  he  was  able  to  preserve  the  status  of  the  Vatican 
unimpaired  and  without  any  loss  of  dignity  or  prestige.  The 
Emperor  inclined  to  the  view  that  neither  Pope  Pius  X.  nor 
his  secretary-of-state,  Merry  del  Val,  appreciated  this  as  it 
deserved.  "  They  are  doing  a  great  wrong,  which  I  feel  all 
the  more  as  I  always  hold  that  the  relations  of  the  Curia 
to  Italy  should  take  into  account  a  situation  that  has  become 
difait  accompli  and  as  such  must  be  accepted,"  the  Emperor 
concluded. 

During  this  conversation,  which  took  place  at  the  luncheon- 
table  during  the  Emperor's  visit  to  Godollo  in  191 1,  he 
made  another  remark  which  showed  unmistakably  what  a 
close  observer  Francis  Joseph  had  always  been.  His  vigilant 
eye  never  missed  the  slightest  detail,  however  obscure  and 
unimportant  it  might  be.  In  the  course  of  the  above  con- 
versation one  of  the  guests  had  timidly  ventured  the  remark 

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that  in  many  circles  both  King  Victor  Emmanuel  III.  and 
his  father  were  believed  to  be  free-thinkers  and  that  it  was 
a  mistake  to  credit  him  with  definite  leanings  towards  the 
Church  of  Rome.  The  old  Emperor  shook  his  head  and 
replied  with  complete  conviction :  "  I  don't  believe  it,  and 
never  shall.  Even  if  I  had  no  other  urgent  grounds  for 
believing  in  the  religious  sincerity  of  the  King  of  Italy,  one 
fact,  of  no  great  weight  and  hardly  conclusive  in  itself,  per- 
haps, would  reassure  me.  Quite  lately  I  happened  to  have 
in  my  hands  the  King's  photograph,  and  it  did  not  escape 
me  that  he  was  wearing  on  his  uniform  the  Cross  of  the 
Order  of  Malta,  as  well  as  the  Grand  Cross  stars  of  the  Italian 
Orders.  The  former  is  a  religious,  in  a  certain  sense  a  spiritual 
brotherhood.  If  the  King  attaches  importance  to  his  mem- 
bership of  this  Order,  and  shows  it  publicly,  one  must  suppose 
that  he  regards  himself  as  a  son  of  the  Catholic  Church.  To 
me  this  is  quite  convincing." 

With  the  death  of  King  Humbert,  a  son  of  the  Arch- 
duchess Maria  Adelaide,  sister  of  the  Archduke  Rainer,  the 
family  connection  between  the  two  courts,  which  had  once 
been  closely  related  by  intermarriage,  came  to  an  end.  The 
younger  generations,  hampered  by  political  and  international 
friction,  had  refrained  from  further  intermarriage. 

In  spite  of  this  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph,  whenever 
an  opportunity  arose,  lost  no  chance  of  showing  that  he 
would  have  been  only  too  willing  to  see  the  formal  alliance 
between  the  two  nations  supported  by  sentimental  ties. 

When,  in  August,  1907,  the  Italian  Foreign  Minister, 
Tittoni,  was  invited  to  present  himself  personally  at  Ischl 
by  the  Emperor,  both  he  and  the  Chief  of  the  Cabinet, 
BoUati,  were  surprised  by  the  extraordinary  attentions  which 
the  Emperor  showed  them;  it  was  the  same  in  July,  1912, 
when  the  Italian  Foreign  Minister,  the  Marquis  di  San 
Giuliano,  visited  the  Emperor,  also  at  Ischl. 

In  August,  191 3,  on  the  occasion  of  the  fiftieth  anniversary 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

celebrations  of  the  Military  Academy,  which  had  been 
moved  from  Vienna  to  Modling,  the  Italian  general,  Caneva, 
once  a  pupil  of  the  Academy,  was  invited  to  be  present  at 
the  express  wish  of  the  Emperor.  Francis  Joseph  received 
him  in  audience  at  Ischl,  decorated  him  with  the  Grand 
Cross  of  the  Order  of  St.  Stephen — the  highest  honour, 
except  the  Order  of  the  Golden  Fleece,  which  the  sovereign 
could  bestow — and  invited  him  to  the  family  table,  where 
he  sat  at  the  Emperor's  right  hand. 

The  Italian  ambassadors  in  Vienna,  Count  Nigra  and 
Duke  Avarna,  were  received  with  special  honour  by  the 
Emperor.  He  had  a  particularly  high  opinion  of  Count 
Nigra,  who  enjoyed  his  special  confidence. 

Of  course,  the  Military  Attaches  to  the  Italian  Embassy 
in  Vienna  could  not  have  the  prestige  and  influence  of  their 
German  colleagues  if  only  because  their  position  in  Viennese 
society  was  naturally  not  so  prominent.  The  same  may  be 
said  of  the  Naval  Attaches.  The  officers  appointed  to 
these  posts  by  the  Italian  Government  were  certainly 
thoroughly  efficient  and  usually  very  distinguished.  In  the 
Austrian  capital  the  names  of  Colonel  del  Mastro  and  Com- 
mander Canciani  stood  high  in  professional  circles.  Captain 
Count  Sigray  di  San  Marzano,  who  spoke  both  Ger- 
man and  Hungarian  with  perfect  fluency,  was  an  excellent 
choice  for  the  post  of  military  attache  on  that  ground 
alone. 

The  Emperor  had  a  particularly  high  opinion  of  his 
successor,  Lieutenant-Colonel  Count  Albricci,  and  he 
thoroughly  deserved  it.  The  old  sovereign  was  genuinely 
fond  of  Albricci  and  was  always  glad  to  meet  him  and  have 
a  long  talk  with  him.  With  his  splendid  judgment  of  men 
he  had  immediately  realized  what  an  unusually  capable  and 
accomplished  officer  Albricci  was.  He  was  particularly 
struck  with  his  youthful  vigour  and  frank,  charming  manner. 
One  morning  at  Schonbrunn  the  Emperor  asked  me  whether 

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Francis  Joseph's  Foreign  Relations 

I  knew  Albricci  well  and  saw  much  of  him.     I  said  that  I 
did.     The  Emperor  continued  : 

"  He's  a  really  first-class  officer  !  He's  learned  a  lot  and 
possesses  the  valuable  faculty  of  assimilating  his  knowledge 
and  making  it  part  of  himself.  I  realize  it  more  and  more 
every  time  I  talk  to  him.  He'll  go  a  long  way,  I'm  sure. 
We  shall  hear  great  things  of  him  some  day  !  " 

The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  was  extraordinarily  reserved 
and  he  never  spoke  so  openly  and  highly  of  any  other  foreign 
officer. 

I  might  mention  another  minor  detail  here.  The  Em- 
peror, on  principle,  never  bestowed  the  Austrian  Imperial 
Order  of  the  Iron  Crown  upon  Italians,  because  this  Lom- 
bard Crown  had  been  taken  back  to  Monza,  near  Milan, 
in  1866,  and  thenceforward  was  regarded  as  belonging  to 
Italy,  as  the  words  "  Corona  d'  Italia  "  on  the  insignia  of 
the  Order  show.  This  was  why  Italians  received  a  higher 
decoration  than  other  foreigners.  They  were  given  the 
Order  of  Leopold,  which  was  never  as  a  rule  granted  to 
foreigners,  or  correspondingly  high  classes  of  the  Order  of 
Francis  Joseph. 

It  was  the  Emperor's  intention  and  desire  to  help  Italy 
to  the  greatest  possible  development  along  peaceful  paths. 
His  great  desire  was  to  be  able  to  regard  Italy  as  an  effective 
and  loyal  member  of  the  Triple  Alliance.  It  is  strange  that 
these  wishes  of  the  Emperor  should  have  been  neither  under- 
stood nor  respected,  not  only  in  Germany  but  also  by  the 
Austrian  Foreign  Ministers,  Counts  Goluchowski  and  Aehren- 
thal.  It  was  during  a  visit  to  the  German  capital  in  the 
autumn  of  1900,  where  I  had  been  sent  by  the  Operations 
Bureau  of  the  Austro-Hungarian  General  Staff  on  business 
connected  with  the  Triple  Alliance,  that  I  first  realized  that 
in  Berlin  Italy  was  regarded  as  an  ally  who  could  not  be 
trusted  and  on  whose  support  it  was  impossible  to  rely  when 
the  time  came.      Not  a  little  amazed  at  this  view  I  could 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

not  help  wondering  what  were  the  reasons  for  maintaining 
an  alHance  with  a  state  which  was  regarded  as  a  secret,  and 
so  all  the  more  dangerous  enemy.  When  I  asked  the  Chief 
of  the  Operations  Department  of  the  Great  General  Staff, 
Lieutenant-Colonel  Deimling,  he  said  that  Italy  had  been 
dragged  into  the  alliance  to  prevent  her  from  stabbing  the 
Central  Powers  in  the  back  as  soon  as  war  was  declared,  and 
so  placing  them  at  once  in  a  perilous  situation. 

"  In  any  case,  Italy  is  only  a  drone  in  the  alliance,"  con- 
cluded Deimling ;  "  no  reasonable  person  supposes  she  will 
really  help  us  when  the  moment  arrives." 

The  attitude  of  Goluchowski  and  Aehrenthal  proved  that 
they  shared  that  view.  They  continually  pursued  a  policy 
of  pinpricks,  prompted  presumably  by  a  feeling  of  German 
and  Austrian  superiority  and  therefore  deplorable  from  every 
point  of  view.  The  Emperor  refused  to  identify  himself 
with  this  policy  ;  indeed  it  was  quite  contrary  to  his  desires, 
and  if  he  ultimately  allowed  it  to  continue  unchecked,  this 
again  was  due  to  his  self-effacement  and  devotion  to  duty 
which  prevented  him  from  interfering  with  the  responsible 
authorities— in  this  case  the  Foreign  Ministers — by  using 
his  influence  against  them.  The  following  incident  is  a 
striking  proof : 

When  Italy  declared  war  on  Turkey  in  191 1  to  secure 
Tripoli  for  herself  Francis  Joseph  thought  that  every  eifort 
should  be  made  to  induce  the  Porte  to  hand  over  Tripoli 
to  Italy  in  order  to  bring  the  quarrel  to  an  early  end.  Aehren- 
thal thought  differently.  He  was  in  favour  of  encouraging 
Turkey  to  stand  firm,  whatever  happened,  and  to  offer 
the  strongest  possible  resistance.  Aehrenthal  knew  he  had 
the  support  of  Berlin  and  won  the  day  against  the  express 
personal  wish  of  the  Emperor. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  German  Ambassador  in  Constan- 
tinople, Field-Marshal  Baron  von  Bieberstein,  zealously 
urged  the  Porte  to  continue  the  war  in  Tripoli  as  stubbornly 

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Francis  Joseph's  Foreign  Relations 

as  possible.  He  supplied  them  with  great  quantities  of 
military  material  from  Germany  and  did  all  he  could  to 
support  Enver  Pasha  who  was  organizing  the  Turkish  re- 
sistance in  Lybia. 

The  Emperor  consented  to  this  policy  with  a  heavy  heart, 
for  it  was  entirely  contrary  to  his  instinct  and  chivalrous 
sentiments.     One  morning  he  said  openly  at  Schonbrunn  : 

"  What  the  Germans  are  doing  in  Constantinople  is  as 
wrong  as  it  is  unwise.  I  have  only  to  ask  :  Are  we  Italy's 
allies  or  not  ?  I  think  we  are.  In  that  case  it  is  a  mere 
matter  of  decency  for  us  to  give  Italy  what  help  we  can, 
at  any  rate  in  the  diplomatic  field." 

Count  Paar  also  supported  the  opposition — at  that  time 
the  Emperor  was  almost  completely  alone  in  his  views — 
and  tried  argument,  urging  that  Count  Aehrenthal  was  of 
the  contrary  opinion.    The  Emperor  repHed : 

"  I  know  that,  and  Aehrenthal  perhaps  knows  best. 
But  possibly  it  has  not  occurred  to  him  that  if  the  present 
course  of  events  continues  Italy  may  find  herself  compelled 
to  extend  the  theatre  of  war,  so  far  confined  to  Tripoli 
fortunately,  to  other  Ottoman  territory.  That  might  give 
rise  to  serious  complications  and  we  ourselves  be  drawn  in. 
That  must  be  avoided  at  all  costs." 

What  the  Emperor  had  foreseen  actually  occurred,  but 
he  still  wished  to  allow  Italy  a  free  hand  against  the  Turks. 
He  entirely  disapproved  of  Aehrenthal's  intervention  in 
favour  of  the  Porte  even  when  the  fighting  extended  to  the 
Adriatic.  Once  more  Aehrenthal,  inspired  and  supported 
by  BerHn,  got  his  own  way,  though  his  triumph  was  ultimately 
disastrous,  as  the  Lybian  war  was  followed  by  the  Balkan 
wars  which  in  their  turn  led  to  the  world  war  ! 

This  resulted  in  that  estrangement  between  the  Emperor 
Francis  Joseph,  who  had  foreseen  all  the  developments  with 
rare  perspicacity,  and  Count  Aehrenthal  which  would  have 
led  to  the  latter's  removal  from  office  if  he  had  not  died  first. 

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This  fundamental  difference  of  view  between  the  Emperor 
and  his  foreign  ministers  on  the  subject  of  Italy  is  all  the  more 
noteworthy  as  it  was  exactly  the  same  with  regard  to  Russia. 
As,  however,  Austria-Hungary's  foreign  policy  was  summed 
up  in  her  relations  with  these  two  states,  it  follows  that  during 
the  critical  time  from  1908  onwards,  that  policy  ran  directly 
counter  to  the  sovereign's  wishes.  The  Foreign  Ministers 
acted  on  their  own  views  and  it  is  impossible  to  avoid  the 
conclusion  that  these  were  very  strongly  influenced  from 
Berlin  and  not  less  from  the  Belvedere  where  the  Archduke 
Francis  Ferdinand  also  lent  an  attentive  ear  to  the  Berlin 
Foreign  Office  and  was  able  to  intervene  decisively.  What 
would  have  been  the  course  of  world  events  if  Austria- 
Hungary's  foreign  policy  after  1908  had  been  controlled 
by  the  cautious  desires  of  the  Emperor  of  Austria  and  King 
of  Hungary,  and  not  in  accordance  with  the  views  of 
ministers  who  thought  themselves  infallible  but  were  really 
under  foreign  influence  ? 

Francis  Joseph  had  always  felt  deep  sympathy  for  the 
Russian  Empire.  This  was  the  outcome  of  his  conservative 
instincts.  But  he  did  not  approve,  and  still  less  wished  to 
imitate,  everything  that  went  on  in  Petrograd.  Nothing 
would  have  pleased  him  more  than  the  complete  renewal 
of  the  old  friendship  with  Russia.  He  often  used  the  signifi- 
cant expression  :  "  Three  Emperors'  Alliance,"  and  uttered 
it  in  a  tone  of  longing. 

But  the  foreign  policy  of  both  Austria  and  Russia  made 
such  hopes  unrealizable.  Their  fulfilment  was  already 
beyond  the  bounds  of  possibility ;  Russia  was  obviously 
exploring  other  paths. 

Nevertheless  Francis  Joseph  was  always  very  pleased  when 
he  could  discover  any  possible  points  of  contact  with  the 
Czar  Nicholas  H.  It  re-awakened  his  hopes  that  possibly 
even  yet  the  day  might  come  when  his  empire  and  Russia 
would  once  more  work  together. 

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When,  therefore,  in  October,  1903,  there  came  an  oppor- 
tunity of  entertaining  the  Czar  at  Schonbrunn  and  afterwards 
at  Miirzsteg,  the  Emperor  looked  forward  to  it  with  a  joy 
such  as  he  had  hardly  ever  shown  on  any  similar  occasion. 
Francis  Joseph's  inexhaustible  amiability  and  tactful  con- 
sideration did  not  fail  to  make  an  impression  on  the  Russian 
Czar.  His  shy,  taciturn  nature  thawed  visibly.  Unfor- 
tunately these  efforts  brought  no  real  political  results. 

At  the  Russian  Embassy  in  Vienna  the  blame  for  this 
failure  was  imputed  on  the  one  hand  to  the  oppressed  con- 
dition of  the  Slavs  in  Austria-Hungary  and  on  the  other  to 
German  influence.  Of  the  rival  tendencies  in  the  Balkans 
Russia's  dependence  on  France  and  the  latter's  thirst  for 
revenge  the  Russian  officials  did  not  care  to  speak  ;  it  would 
have  sounded  too  much  like  a  confession  of  "  mea  culpa." 

Before  the  annexation  crisis  of  1908  Francis  Joseph 
visited  the  Russian  Embassy  from  time  to  time,  especially 
while  Count  Kapdist,  who  was  particularly  esteemed  by  the 
Emperor  and  very  popular  in  Vienna,  was  ambassador. 
After  that  year  it  was  only  on  the  19th  December — the  Czar's 
birthday — that  the  Emperor,  wearing  the  splendid  uniform 
of  a  Russian  Field-Marshal,  went  to  convey  his  congratulations 
personally  to  the  Russian  Ambassador,  after  having  despatched 
a  telegram  to  the  Czar  direct  at  an  early  hour.  In  the  evening 
a  grand  court  banquet  was  given  in  the  Hofburg  or  at  Schon- 
brunn in  honour  of  the  Czar,  during  which  Francis  Joseph 
raised  his  glass  of  champagne  with  the  words  :  "  Je  hois  a  la 
sante  de  mon  cher  frere  et  ami,  V Em-pereur  Nicolas  de  toutes  les 
Russies  J  " 

The  Russian  military  and  naval  attaches  in  Vienna  could 
not  play  so  great  a  part  as  their  German  colleagues  if  only 
because  the  relations  between  the  Court  and  the  Russian 
Embassy  were  gradually  cooling.  The  Emperor  Francis 
Joseph  was  nothing  if  not  "  correct  "  and  therefore  correspond- 
ingly sensitive,  and  he  was  deeply  hurt  that  while  the  Austro- 

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Hungarian  military  attache  in  St.  Petersburg  was  always 
one  of  his  aides-de-camp  (in  accordance  with  that  custom, 
dating  from  the  Holy  Alliance,  to  which  I  have  referred) 
this  mark  of  respect  for  the  Czar  was  not  reciprocated  by  the 
latter. 

The  Russian  "  Military  Plenipotentiary "  in  Vienna — 
that  was  his  official  title — was  only  a  lieutenant-colonel  or 
colonel  of  the  Russian  General  Staff.  That  only  was  sufficient 
to  prejudice  his  position  in  the  eyes  of  the  Emperor  to  a  certain 
extent. 

While  I  was  in  the  Aides-de-Camp's  Department  I  was  on 
terms  of  the  closest  friendship  with  Colonel  Martschenko, 
one  of  the  Russian  military  attaches  and  a  really  splendid 
man.  He  made  it  the  object  of  his  life  to  do  all  he  could 
to  renew  the  ancient  alliance  between  Russia,  Austria- 
Hungary  and  Germany.  His  ambassador,  Prince  Urussoff, 
had  also  been  won  over  to  that  cause  and  Martschenko  was 
sure  of  the  co-operation  of  the  German  military  attache, 
Count  Kageneck.  In  these  admirable  endeavours  I  was  only 
too  glad  to  give  what  help  I  could  to  Martschenko,  not  merely 
because  of  my  personal  liking  for  him,  but  because  he  was 
in  fact  inspired  by  the  best  intentions  and  I  regarded  him 
as  a  particularly  efficient  and  conscientious  comrade.  Un- 
fortunately his  well-meant  efforts  had  no  concrete  results, 
as  Count  Aehrenthal  was  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs  at  that 
time,  and  as  a  result  of  his  long  experience  as  ambassador  in 
St.  Petersburg  he  rejected  the  idea  of  a  "  Three  Emperors' 
Alliance "  as  Utopian  and  refused  to  discuss  the  matter 
further,  as  was  his  wont.  The  discouraged  and  disconsolate 
Martschenko  often  asked  me :  "  Who  is  the  real  ruler  of 
Austria,  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  or  Aehrenthal  ?  And 
if  Aehrenthal  is  omnipotent  is  he  necessarily  omniscient  ?  " 

The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  took  a  great  interest  in  the 
Russian  army,  with  which  he  had  many  ties,  as  with  the 
German  army.     He  was  a  Russian  Field-Marshal  as  well  as 

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Commander  of  the  Keksholm  Life  Guards  and  the  Biel- 
gorod  1 2th  Uhlan  Regiment.  Until  1908  the  active  com- 
manders of  these  regiments — the  Keksholm  regiment,  as 
was  usual  in  Russian  Guard  regiments,  was  always  commanded 
by  a  major-general — used  to  present  themselves  personally 
to  the  Emperor.  After  1909,  in  view  of  the  strained  situation, 
this  excellent  custom  was  allowed  to  drop,  much  to  the  Em- 
peror's disappointment.  As  in  the  case  of  the  Emperor's 
German  regiments,  there  were  many  other  opportunities 
for  the  Russian  military  representatives  to  call  upon  the 
Emperor  and  he  always  received  them  with  marked  favour. 
The  Keksholm  Guards,  whose  chief  he  had  been  since  1849, 
had  the  highest  regard  for  the  Emperor,  a  fact  which  he 
warmly  appreciated.  In  January,  1899,  the  fiftieth  anni- 
versar)'  of  his  appointment  to  the  regiment,  he  had  a  special 
medal  struck  for  the  Keksholm  Guards,  representing  himself 
on  the  obverse  side  in  the  uniform  of  the  regiment  and  bearing 
on  the  reverse  a  Russian  inscription  referring  to  the  Jubilee. 
This  medal  was  presented  in  silver  to  all  officers  and  in  bronze 
to  all  non-commissioned  officers  of  the  regiment. 

Francis  Joseph  frequently  wore  Russian  uniform. 

"  It  makes  me  look  younger  than  the  Austro-Hungarian," 
he  used  to  say,  smiling.  What  I  have  already  said  with 
regard  to  his  German  uniforms  also  applies  to  the  Russian. 
He  was  equally  meticulous  in  his  respect  for  the  dress 
regulations.  When,  in  October,  1901,  he  appeared  at 
the  Ostbahnhof  at  Budapest  in  the  uniform  of  a  Russian 
Field-Marshal  to  receive  the  Grand  Duke  Michael,  the 
Russian  military  plenipotentiary,  Colonel  von  Roop,  and  his 
staff  were  already  there.  When  Francis  Joseph  appeared, 
Roop  looked  hard  at  him  and  afterwards  turned  to  me  in 
astonishment  with  the  question :  "  Who  is  this  Russian 
general  ?  " 

When  I  replied,  considerably  taken  back  :  "  Why,  that's 
my  Emperor  !  "  Roop  exclaimed  : 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

"  Pd  never  have  believed  the  Emperor  would  be  so  cor- 
rectly dressed.     I  didn't  recognize  him  !  " 

When  the  Emperor  stepped  up  to  the  Russian  officers  and 
quickly  removed  his  white  glove  to  follow  the  Russian  custom 
of  shaking  hands  ungloved,  they  were  speechless  with  admira- 
tion. 

"  The  Emperor  even  remembered  that !  "  said  Colonel  von 
Roop  afterwards ;  "  I  should  never  have  thought  such  a 
perfect  imitation  of  our  customs  possible  in  a  non-Russian." 

Roop  could  not  refrain  from  repeating  this  to  the  Emperor 
himself,  much  to  the  latter's  delight.  He  then  inquired  about 
a  large  silver  medal  which  the  Emperor  was  wearing  among 
his  Russian  Orders  immediately  next  to  the  Order  of  St. 
George.  He  apologized  for  his  curiosity  and  remarked  that 
although  he  was  an  authority  on  Russian  decorations  he  had 
never  seen  this  medal  before  in  his  life.  The  Emperor  was 
delighted  and  replied  : 

"  That  I  can  well  believe  :  it  is  the  Russian  medal  to 
commemorate  the  campaign  in  Hungary  in  1849." 

It  is  well  known  that  Francis  Joseph  always  wore  the  Order 
of  St.  George,  3rd  class,  which  had  been  presented  to  him  by 
the  Czar  Nicholas  I.  after  the  capture  of  Raab  in  1849,  even 
when  he  was  walking  about  at  Ischl  or  Godollo  in  undress 
uniform  or  working  at  his  desk.  He  only  removed  it  in 
August,  19 14,  on  the  day  war  was  declared  with  Russia,  with 
feelings  of  deep  regret. 

It  is  interesting  to  remember  that  in  1914  Nicholas  II. 
also  sent  Francis  Joseph  the  medal  struck  by  him  on  the  occa- 
sion of  the  Romanoff  anniversary  celebrations.  It  reached 
Ischl  in  the  middle  of  July,  1914,  only  a  few  days  before  the 
outbreak  of  the  war. 

During  the  long  and  prosperous  reign  of  Queen  Victoria 
there  was  hardly  any  direct  points  of  contact  between  her 
court  and  that  of  Vienna.  Francis  Joseph  only  once  met 
Queen  Victoria,   for  a   few  minutes   at   Innsbruck  station ; 

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apart  from  this  the  relations  between  these  two  were  confined 
to  formal  and  official  civilities. 

This  was  changed  when  in  January,  1901,  Queen  Victoria's 
eldest  son,  Edward  VII.,  ascended  the  British  throne.  As 
Prince  of  Wales  he  had  often  paid  long  visits  to  Austria  and 
Hungary,  during  which  he  had  been  on  very  friendly  terms 
with  the  Crown  Prince  Rudolph. 

When  the  new  King  paid  his  first  visit  to  the  Emperor 
Francis  Joseph  at  the  beginning  of  September,  1903,  he  was 
received  with  open  arms  as  an  old  and  valued  friend.  There 
were  brilliant  festivities  at  the  Vienna  Hofburg  for  it  was 
only  fitting  that  the  man  who  was  then  perhaps  the  most 
powerful  sovereign  in  the  world  should  be  honoured  as  was 
his  due.  Moreover,  King  Edward  had  acquired  a  reputation 
for  his  outstanding  gifts  and  rare  political  acumen  and  that 
again  also  contributed  to  make  this  first  visit  an  event  of  far- 
reaching  significance. 

In  a  certain  sense  that  was  to  be  true.  King  Edward 
made  himself  at  home  in  Vienna  and  his  natural  kindness 
which  was  set  off  by  his  perfect  command  of  the  German 
language,  was  such  that  Francis  Joseph  at  once  surrendered 
to  the  charm  of  the  British  King.  At  dinner  on  the  very  day 
of  his  arrival  in  Vienna  the  King  solemnly  announced  the 
Emperor's  appointment  as  a  British  Field-Marshal.  That 
the  Emperor,  who  for  ten  years  had  been  Honorary  Colonel 
of  the  British  First  King's  Dragoon  Guards,  prized  this  honour 
very  highly  was  shown  by  the  fact  that  on  the  following  morn- 
ing the  Emperor  telegraphed  his  greetings  to  all  his  brother 
Field-Marshals  in  the  British  army  individually.  In  the  case 
of  such  an  exceptionally  reserved  man  as  the  Emperor 
Francis  Joseph  the  action  was  most  eloquent. 

It  was  immediately  rumoured  in  the  circles  of  the  initiated 
that  King  Edward's  extraordinary  friendliness  was  bound 
up  with  his  hopes  of  loosening  the  alliance  with  the  German 
Empire.     King  Edward  is,  in  fact,  believedto  have  tested  the 

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ground  during  this  first  visit  and  to  have  found  it  impractic- 
able because  the  Emperor  was  firmly  loyal  to  the  alliance  with 
Germany  and  would  not  discuss  the  matter  further. 

King  Edward,  however,  did  not  leave  it  at  that.  The 
feelers  he  had  begun  to  put  on  towards  Vienna  had  to  be  ex- 
tended further.  He  was  in  touch  with  the  old  Emperor 
at  last  and  the  new  relations  could  not  be  given  up  so  soon. 
The  King  therefore,  in  April,  1904,  sent  his  son  and  heir 
George,  Prince  of  Wales — the  present  King  George  V. — 
with  his  wife  Mary,  nee  Princess  of  Teck,  to  Vienna  to  visit 
the  Emperor.  The  Prince  and  Princess  spent  several  days 
at  the  Hofburg  and  were  overwhelmed  with  every  possible 
attention. 

The  Emperor,  on  his  side,  also  kept  up  the  friendship. 
He  appointed  King  Edward,  who  for  many  years  had  been 
Colonel  of  the  12th  Hussars,  to  the  rank  of  Austro-Hungarian 
Field-Marshal.  His  visit  of  September,  1903,  was  returned 
in  the  spring  of  1904  by  the  visit  of  the  heir,  the  Archduke 
Francis  Ferdinand,  to  Buckingham  Palace  and  in  the  same 
year  the  Archduke  Frederick  was  sent  to  England  to  take  the 
King  the  Austro-Hungarian  Field-Marshal's  uniform  which 
had  been  made  for  him  in  Vienna. 

In  this  way  there  was  established  between  the  Austrian 
and  English  Courts  a  relationship  which  was  quite  unknown 
in  the  old  days  and  which  grew  ever  closer. 

This  was  supplemented  most  skilfully  by  the  tactful 
King  Edward  by  frequent  correspondence  and  personal 
reference  to  the  Emperor.  To  a  man  of  the  British  sove- 
reign's high  intelligence  it  was  easy  to  find  excuses  for  referring 
to  the  Emperor  at  quite  short  intervals  without  giving  the 
impression  of  having  political  or  similar  objects. 

In  the  spring  of  1904,  for  instance,  through  the  military 
attache  of  the  British  Embassy  in  Vienna  he  inquired  direct 
of  the  old  Emperor  what  were  his  views  about  arming  cavalry 
with  lances.     King  Edward  made  it  perfectly  clear  that  he 

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wanted  to  have  the  Emperor's  private  opinion  only,  not  the 
views  of  leading  military  circles  in  Vienna. 

Francis  Joseph  was  extremely  flattered  by  this  direct 
appeal  to  the  judgment  he  had  acquired  through  his  long 
experience,  and  all  the  more  so  because  the  King  frankly 
admitted  that  the  reason  for  his  inquiry  was  the  fact  that 
he  did  not  care  to  venture  upon  a  solution  of  so  difficult  a 
problem  himself  if  only  because  the  cavalry  of  two  of  the 
greatest  military  powers — Germany  and  Austria — ^had  con- 
flicting views  on  this  point. 

The  Germans  armed  their  cavalry  with  lances  while  the 
Austrians  did  not.  That  fact  alone  had  given  the  King  much 
to  think  about  and  it  seemed  to  him  that  the  only  way  out 
of  his  dilemma  was  to  ask  the  weighty  advice  of  his  true  friend, 
the  Emperor  of  Austria. 

Francis  Joseph  answered  in  a  long,  personal  letter  which 
it  had  obviously  given  him  great  pleasure  to  write.  With 
his  usual  patience  and  sense  of  reality  he  began  with  a  recital 
of  the  pros  and  cons  in  the  matter  of  arming  cavalry  with 
lances.  He  pointed  out  that  in  action,  particularly  with 
considerable,  self-contained  formations,  cavalry  armed  with 
lances  would  have  a  very  great  advantage  over  cavalry  not 
so  armed.  At  the  same  time  he  made  it  clear  that  in  view 
of  the  nature  of  modern  war  it  was  unlikely  that  cavalry 
would  be  employed  as  a  fighting  arm  on  any  large  scale.  Other 
points  must  also  be  carefully  considered — the  great  difficulty 
of  training  men  with  the  lance  in  view  of  their  short  period 
of  service  in  modern  conscript  armies ;  the  difficulties  of 
movement  over  broken  or  wooded  ground,  and  the  relatively 
little  need  for  the  lance  when  the  principal  function  of  cavalry 
in  modern  war,  i.e.^  reconnaissance  and  intelligence  work — 
was  being  performed. 

Summing  up,  the  Emperor  concluded  that  he  could  re- 
commend no  compromise  such  as  arming  part  of  the  cavalry 
only  with  lances  as  it  would  only  be  too  probable  that  just 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

at  the  time  when  lance  regiments  were  required  regiments 
without  lances  would  be  available,  and  vice  versa.  If  it 
was  not  a  question  of  cutting  the  gordian  knot  at  once  and 
deciding  straight  off  whether  to  arm  the  cavalry  with  lances 
or  not,  there  was  a  middle  way  which  might  do  for  the  time 
being.  In  those  States  in  which  individual  regiments  were 
already  armed  with  lances  it  would  be  advisable  not  to  follow 
Austria's  example,  but  to  leave  them  with  the  lances  and 
confine  that  arm  to  those  particular  units.  Thus,  if  future 
developments  solved  the  problem  definitely,  the  way  would 
have  been  prepared  for  the  introduction  of  the  lance  generally, 
while  the  manufacture  of  the  weapons  themselves  would 
present  no  special  difficulties. 

These  clear  and  quite  unpretentious  remarks  seemed  to 
have  completely  satisfied  King  Edward.  He  thanked  the 
Emperor  in  particularly  warm  terms  and  continued  to  refer 
direct  to  him  on  all  kinds  of  matters  from  time  to  time.  Francis 
Joseph  was  only  too  plea.ed  to  oblige  him,  and  thus  the  inter- 
change of  ideas  became  a  pleasant  custom. 

In  August,  1904,  when  King  Edward  came  to  Marienbad 
for  the  cure — a  visit  he  repeated  in  the  following  years — the 
Emperor  Francis  Joseph  returned  his  visit  in  person.  On  this 
occasion  the  plans  of  the  English  King  were  unfolded  with 
greater  frankness  and  the  old  Emperor  returned  from 
Marienbad  very  depressed,  for  he  was  now  in  a  fatal 
dilemma. 

The  Russo-Japanese  war  was  then  raging  in  East  Asia  and 
taking  a  turn  unfavourable  to  Russia.  England  was  at  that 
time  the  ally  of  Japan  and  had  not  yet  recognized  the  Kara- 
geo  giewitsch  dynasty  which  had  established  itself  on  the 
Serbian  throne  in  such  tragic  circumstances  in  the  previous 
year.  Recognition  was  refused  of  set  purpose,  as  King  Edward 
was  keeping  Serbia  up  his  sleeve  as  a  possible  reward  for  Austria 
in  return  for  dropping  the  alliance  with  Germany.  The 
British  King  also  pointed  out  in  Marienbad  that  Austria- 

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Francis  Joseph's  Foreign  Relations 

Hungary  had  now  an  excellent  opportunity  of  settling  Balkan 
questions  in  her  own  favour  without  having  to  consider 
Russia,  which  was  fully  occupied  in  East  Asia  and  therefore 
defenceless  in  Europe.  Such  action  would  also  have  brought 
many  advantages  to  Germany,  as  for  example  unlimited 
command  of  the  south  coast  of  the  Baltic.  But  the  main 
point  of  King  Edward's  scheme  was  that  Germany  should 
be  kept  busy  by  a  conflict  with  Russia,  which  would  distract 
her  from  pursuing  her  commercial  ambitions  over  the 
whole  world.  That  was  always  the  English  King's  primary 
object. 

But  Francis  Joseph  remained  true  to  his  loyal  views  on 
the  German  alliance,  and  neither  Vienna  nor  Berlin  would 
hear  of  action  against  Russia.  King  Edward's  plans  therefore 
came  no  nearer  to  realization. 

He  was  not  discouraged  in  the  least. 

On  one  of  his  annual  visits  to  Marienbad,  in  August,  1905, 
he  broke  his  journey  to  visit  Francis  Joseph  in  his  summer 
residence  at  Ischl.  This  was  supposed  to  be  a  short  private 
visit  but  it  was  obviously  intended  to  give  the  King,  who 
conducted  his  own  foreign  policy,  an  opportunity  for  an 
exhaustive  conversation  with  the  Emperor.  Once  more 
Francis  Joseph  was  placed  in  an  awkward  situation  and  it 
cost  him  a  tremendous  effort  to  resist  the  enticements  of  a 
man  so  highly  gifted  and  well  versed  in  diplomacy  as  the 
British  King.  Only  at  the  risk  of  discourtesy  towards  his 
guest  did  the  Emperor  finally  bring  himself  to  close  his  ears 
to  the  express  appeal  of  King  Edward. 

This  was  particularly  true  of  the  remarkable  drive  which 
the  two  sovereigns  took  together  in  the  afternoon  of  the  second 
day  of  the  King's  stay  at  Ischl.  They  were  quite  alone, 
no  members  of  the  suite  being  present.  The  drive  was 
through  Lauffen  and  Grisern  to  Halstatt.  As  we  afterwards 
heard.  King  Edward  took  full  advantage  of  this  favourable 
moment  for  a  confidential  conversation  to  draw  a  general 

259  ,  17* 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

picture  of  the  European  political  situation  and  outline  future 
plans. 

The  old  Emperor  could  hardly  hold  his  own  against  the 
real  talent  and  moving  eloquence  of  the  gifted  British  monarch. 
It  must  therefore  have  been  no  easy  task  for  him  to  refrain 
from  committing  himself  to  some  far-reaching  programme 
even  by  a  single  word — a  word  which  Francis  Joseph,  with 
his  strong  sense  of  justice  and  perfect  chivalry,  would  have 
regarded  as  binding. 

The  Emperor  never  committed  himself  without  having 
previously  heard  the  competent  ministers.  On  this  occasion 
they  were  not  available.  Perhaps  King  Edward  actually 
intended  that  they  should  take  no  part  at  this  stage.  As  every- 
one at  the  Austrian  Court  knew,  he  had  no  high  opinion  of 
the  statesmen  of  the  Danube  Monarchy.  He  wished  to 
speak  with  the  Emperor  coeur  a  coeur.  When  he  and  the 
Emperor  were  to  some  extent  at  one,  then  was  the  time  for 
the  Foreign  Ministers  and  the  diplomats  to  appear  on  the 
scene. 

This  line  of  reasoning  of  King  Edward  VII.  was  only 
natural,  inasmuch  as  the  foreign  policy  pursued  by  Vienna 
was  simply  dictated  by  Germany  and  the  King  knew  that 
well  enough.  He  was  now  intent  on  a  fresh  orientation  of 
Austrian  policy.  He  foresaw  that  his  task  was  no  easy  one, 
and  therefore  offered  the  Danube  Monarchy  compensation 
in  a  form  that  was  certainly  very  enticing.  Its  very  attrac- 
tiveness made  it  incumbent  on  the  old  Emperor  to 
proceed  with  the  greatest  caution  and  reserve,  and  thus  his 
conversation  with  the  King  during  this  long  drive — a 
conversation  full  of  pitfalls — became  nothing  less  than  an 
ordeal. 

On  his  return  it  was  easy  to  see  from  the  Emperor's  face 
that  the  inward  conflict  to  which  King  Edward's  more  than 
plausible  arguments  had  given  rise  had  been  a  terrible  strain 
upon  him.     He  was  quite  broken  and  seemed  utterly  worn 

^60 


Francis  Joseph's  Foreign  Relations 

out.  Even  at  dinner  he  had  hardly  a  word  to  say,  and  he  had 
to  make  an  extreme  effort  not  to  collapse  in  his  chair. 

Thereupon  King  Edward,  who  was  always  considerate 
and  a  man  of  fine  feeling,  let  the  matter  rest  for  the  moment 
with  this  preliminary  exfosL  He  would  like  to  have  had 
further  opportunities  of  direct,  personal  discussion  with 
the  Emperor  in  which  to  unfold  the  outlines  of  a  future 
alliance  between  England  and  the  Danube  Monarchy.  For 
that  reason  he  had  requested  that  during  his  stay  at  Ischl 
there  should  be  no  formal  ceremonies.  He  had  even  asked 
the  Emperor  not  to  put  on  English  uniform,  which  he  was  not 
accustomed  to  and  found  uncomfortable,  but  to  wear  the 
dress  he  ordinarily  wore  at  his  summer  residence.  With  a 
view  to  facilitating  the  Emperor's  acquiescence  in  his  request 
(for  Francis  Joseph  was  well  known  as  a  model  of  correctness) 
King  Edward  himself  wore  the  uniform  of  a  colonel  of  the 
1 2th  Austro-Hungarian  Hussars  and  not  the  Field-Marshal's 
uniform  which  the  Emperor  had  sent  him  in  the  previous  year. 

In  the  following  year,  1906,  King  Edward  returned  to 
Marienbad  but  did  not  visit  Ischl.  The  fact  gave  an  impres- 
sion that  he  had  taken  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph's  refusal 
of  1905  as  final  and  was  not  going  to  renew  his  advances. 
Or  was  this  wily  diplomat  only  giving  the  Emperor  time  for 
reflection  in  the  hopes  of  reaching  his  goal  all  the  sooner  ? 

Then  there  came  to  the  Emperor's  summer  residence 
another  guest  who  may  possibly  have  been  the  emissary  of  the 
King  of  England  :  Eugenie,  ex-Empress  of  France.  With 
what  particular  mission,  if  any,  she  may  have  been  entrusted 
by  King  Edward  I  have  never  ascertained  for  certain,  but  in 
any  case  it  was  a  clever  choice  for  the  Emperor  would  find 
it  more  difficult  to  resist  this  highly  gifted  lady  who  was 
associated  in  his  mind  with  brilliant  memories  of  days  of 
yore. 

The  visit  of  the  Empress  Eugenie  passed  off  very  success- 
fully,   and    the    Emperor    excelled    himself    in    chivalrous 

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attentions.  The  old  Empress,  wonderfully  active  in  body  and 
mind,  fascinated  not  only  the  Emperor  and  his  family  but  all 
who  came  in  contact  with  her,  with  her  brilliant  conversation. 

The  Emperor  showed  Eugenie  all  the  honours  due  to  the 
widow  of  an  Emperor,  true  to  his  fundamental  principle  that 
a  sovereign  always  remained  a  sovereign,  whether  on  his  throne 
or  not. 

He  met  her  personally  at  Ischl  station  wearing  the  star 
of  the  Imperial  Order  of  the  Legion  of  Honour,*  a  decoration 
from  which  he  was  not  separated  throughout  her  visit. 

The  aged  Empress  was  deeply  touched  when,  looking 
through  the  window  of  her  compartment  of  the  royal  train 
which  had  brought  her  from  the  frontier,  she  saw  the  Emperor 
on  the  platform.  With  tears  in  her  eyes  she  turned  to  her 
gentleman-in-waiting,  Franceschini-Pietri,  and  cried  :  "  Why, 
the  Emperor  himself  has  come  to  meet  me  !  "  and  when  she 
was  nearer  she  added  excitedly  :  "  He's  wearing  the  Legion 
of  Honour.  Indeed  he  is !  How  kind  of  him.  It's  like 
a  dream,  a  lovely  dream  !  J'en  suis  plus  que  touchee  ;  je 
me  sens  enveloppee  dans  un  reve,  et  dans  un  des  plus  char- 
mants !  " 

Whenever  the  Empress  Eugenie  dined  at  the  Imperial 
villa  the  Emperor  called  for  her  personally  at  the  Hotel 
Elizabeth  where  she  was  staying  and  always  took  her  home. 
No  guest  could  ever  have  received  more  courteous  attention 
than  Francis  Joseph  showed  the  ex-Empress. 

During  her  stay  in  Ischl  the  Emperor  was  in  excellent 
spirits.  He  spent  a  lot  of  time  with  the  Empress  and  had 
many  private  conversations  with  her.  It  is  not  known  whether 
she  managed  to  further  King  Edward's  plans  with  the  Emperor, 
but  she  must  have  taken  away  from  Ischl  an  impression  that 
the  situation  was  not  altogether  hopeless.  Otherwise  the 
King  himself  would  not  have  reappeared  there  in  the  following 
year. 

*  The  Emperor  never  possessed  the  Republican  Order  of  the  Legion  of  Honour. 

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Once  more  he  came  on  his  way  to  Marienbad  with  quite  a 
small  suite,  the  visit  being  expressly  unofficial.  This  time 
he  set  energetically  to  work.  The  situation  was  changed, 
in  that  Russia  was  beginning  to  recover  with  surprising 
rapidity  from  the  setback  she  had  suffered  in  the  Far  East. 
Edward  VII.  was  thus  all  the  more  anxious  to  realize  his  old 
plan  of  "  encircling  "  Germany. 

These  were  difficult  days  for  the  Emperor  who  had  to 
wrestle  alone — as  the  visit  was  supposed  to  be  private — 
with  the  convincing  rhetoric  of  the  English  King,  who  was 
not  merely  skilled,  but  a  downright  genius  in  diplomatic 
affairs.  The  severe  struggle  he  was  waging,  not  only  with 
the  King,  but  still  more  with  himself,  was  apparent  in  his 
face,  for  it  was  a  question  of  nothing  less  than  a  decision 
between  the  right  and  wrong  roads  for  Austria's  future. 
The  Emperor  finally  chose  the  one  along  which  loyalty 
to  the  alliance  beckoned  him.  He  believed  he  had  no  other 
course. 

Although  King  Edward  VII.  prolonged  his  visit,  which 
was  originally  intended  to  last  two  days,  for  a  further  two 
days,  he  did  not  succeed  in  making  the  Emperor  change 
his  tried  and  trusted  policy.  He  went  home  with  his  purpose 
unaccomplished  and  left  the  Emperor  oppressed  by  the 
overwhelming  responsibility  which  his  proposals  had  placed 
upon  him. 

Perhaps,  on  this  occasion,  much  could  have  been  done 
to  the  future  advantage  of  the  Austro-Hungarian  Monarchy 
if  the  Archduke  Francis  Ferdinand  had  been  on  the  spot. 
With  his  elastic  intellect,  his  unmistakable  capacity  for 
judging  political  situations  and  questions  without  the  assist- 
ance of  endless  documents,  the  heir  might  possibly  have 
found  a  way  of  substantially  meeting  the  views  of  the  English 
King,  which  were  not  unsound  and  therefore  not  to  be  lightly 
rejected,  and  so  encouraging  his  friendly  feelings  for  the 
Hapsburg    Empire.    That    they    were    not    only    valuable, 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

but  even  indispensable  has  been  shown  by  later  events  in  a 
way  which  makes  further  comment  unnecessary. 

But  Francis  Ferdinand  was  not  available,  and  even  if  he 
had  been  we  know  that  unfortunately  the  Emperor  could 
not  see  eye  to  eye  with  him,  especially  in  affairs  of  state, 
which  Francis  Joseph  jealously  regarded  as  his  own  pre- 
serve. 

Count  Paar,  it  is  true,  did  not  share  my  opinion  but 
thought  that  Edward  VII.  would  not  have  had  much  success 
even  with  Francis  Ferdinand,  because  the  latter  was  under  a 
great  personal  obligation  to  the  German  Emperor.  William 
II.  had  interceded  very  warmly  with  Francis  Joseph  to  induce 
him  to  consent  to  Francis  Ferdinand's  marriage  with  the 
Countess  Sophie  Chotek  and  the  Austrian  Emperor  had  only 
given  his  final  assent  to  the  morganatic  marriage  as  a  result 
of  this  pressure.  It  was  therefore  hardly  to  be  expected 
that  Francis  Ferdinand  would  show  himself  inclined  to  further 
the  plans  of  the  British  Sovereign,  especially  as  Francis  Fer- 
dinand and  King  Edward  were  by  no  means  on  the  best  of 
terms. 

But  the  British  King  had  not  yet  thrown  down  his  hand  ! 
In  1908  he  again  came  to  Ischl,  a  visit  for  which  the  Emperor's 
diamond  jubilee  offered  the  desired  opportunity.  This 
time  the  King  came  officially  and  with  a  large  suite,  which 
included  the  Secretary  for  Foreign  Affairs,  Sir  Charles  Har- 
dinge,  to  congratulate  his  friend.  To  his  great  relief,  Francis 
Joseph  was  thus  enabled  to  call  in  the  help  of  the  Austrian 
Foreign  Minister,  Aehrenthal. 

Edward  VII. 's  stay  of  several  days  in  Ischl  was  filled  with 
many  brilliant  functions,  interspersed  with  political  con- 
versations of  far-reaching  importance.  These  certainly  led 
to  none  of  the  results  for  which  the  King  hoped.  The 
fact  was  plain  from  the  manner  of  his  departure.  No  effort 
was  made  to  explain  away  the  almost  frigid  atmosphere 
which  accompanied  it.     The  King's  train  had  hardly  started 

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before  the  Emperor  hurried  away  from  the  station,  looking 
grave  and  out  of  temper.  At  the  station,  just  before  the 
departure  Sir  Charles  Hardinge  had  not  hesitated  to  remark 
in  English  to  an  officer  of  the  King's  suite : 

"  The  old  Emperor's  a  splendid  and  exceptional  man. 
But  I  believe  he's  just  missed  one  of  the  greatest  opportunities 
of  his  long  life." 

The  European  crisis  which  followed  soon  after  as  a  result 
of  the  annexation  of  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina  and  the  terribly 
difficult  position  in  which  it  placed  Austria,  threw  light 
on  England's  new  attitude  and  also  showed  plainly  that  it 
might  have  paid  the  Emperor  to  fall  in  with  King  Edward's 
plan.     One  crisis  now  followed  another. 

When  the  waves  of  political  excitement  which  ran  so 
high  during  the  annexation  crisis  in  1908  had  to  some  extent 
been  stilled.  King  Edward  VII.  paid  his  customary  visit  to 
Marienbad  in  the  summer  of  1909.  Before  coming  he 
inquired,  in  spite  of  all  that  had  happened,  whether  he 
might  again  visit  the  Emperor  on  his  way  home.  This 
proposal  was  courteously  but  very  definitely  declined. 
Francis  Joseph  was  tired  of  the  inward  struggle  to  which 
personal  intercourse  with  the  King  had  always  given  rise  ; 
he  preferred  to  avoid  it.  Nevertheless,  on  the  1 8th  August 
— the  Emperor's  birthday — King  Edward  sent  his  Master  of 
Ceremonies,  Mr.  Arthur  Walsh,  to  Ischl  with  a  present. 
During  his  short  stay  Mr.  Walsh  repeatedly  assured  me  how 
deeply  the  King  regretted  not  having  been  able  to  visit  the 
Emperor  in  person,  especially  as  there  was  so  much  of  import- 
ance to  discuss.  That  was  true  enough  and  I  have  never 
quite  been  able  to  understand  why  Francis  Joseph  should 
flatly  have  refused  to  meet  the  British  King,  the  powerful 
ruler  on  whom  the  fate  of  a  world  depended,  at  the  very  time 
when  his  path  was  still  beset  with  difficulties. 

In  the  following  year  King  Edward  died.     Since  May, 
1910,  the  throne  of  England  has  been  occupied  by  George  V., 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

who  has  never  visited  Vienna  as  a  sovereign.  He  reaped  the 
harvest  which  his  father  had  sown. 

King  Edward's  death  was  deeply  and  genuinely  felt  by 
the  Emperor.  I  never  remember  the  death  of  any  other 
sovereign  producing  so  shattering  an  effect  upon  him. 
Perhaps  it  was  because  he  was  in  the  habit  of  keeping  up  a 
livelier  correspondence  with  King  Edward  than  with  any 
other  of  his  contemporaries.  Or,  again,  it  may  be  that 
he  realized  that  his  attitude  to  the  dead  King  had  not  exactly 
been  encouraging  and  his  conscience  pricked  him. 

Whatever  the  reason  King  Edward's  death  moved  Francis 
Joseph  deeply,  and  it  was  long  before  he  found  consolation. 
He  was  always  talking  about  the  true  spirit  of  friendship 
in  which  the  King  met  him  and  the  close  relations  he  wished 
to  establish  between  them. 

At  the  same  time  it  may  be  that  the  Emperor  was  coming 
more  and  more  to  realize  that  the  death  of  King  Edward 
meant  the  loss  of  one  of  the  few  sovereigns  who  could  have 
been  absolutely  relied  on  in  the  hour  of  need.  Hence  the 
deep  sigh  which  the  Emperor  was  often  heard  to  utter  during 
several  critical  phases  of  the  world  war. 

"  If  only  King  Edward  were  alive  now  !  He  would  know 
exactly  what  to  do.  With  genius  like  his  he'd  never  have 
let  this  terrible  war  break  out.  I'm  certain  of  that !  He 
ought  to  have  lived  a  little  longer  to  control  this  awful 
situation.  I  realize  more  and  more  every  day  that  he  is  no 
longer  with  us !  " 

The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  appears  never  to  have 
understood  King  Edward  VII.  Personally,  I  think  it  not 
impossible  that  in  his  plan  for  encircling  Germany  the  English 
King  was  endeavouring  to  avert  rather  than  provoke,  a  war 
such  as  that  through  which  we  have  all  recently  passed.  The 
tremendous  commercial  and  industrial  development  of  Ger- 
many, which  aroused  a  sense  of  rivalry  in  England,  and 
Germany's  military  preparations  were  bound  before  long — as 

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King  Edward  foresaw — to  produce  a  terrible  crisis,  only  to  be 
settled  by  recourse  to  arms.  King  Edward  thought  such  a 
catastrophe  could  best  be  prevented  by  the  complete  isolation 
of  Germany,  not  with  a  view  to  aggression  against  her,  but 
of  cooling  her  ardour  for  war.  I  have  repeatedly  had  this 
view  of  Edward  VII. 's  policy  put  to  me  by  Englishmen 
and  I  really  believe  the  explanation  contains  a  grain  of 
truth. 

That  this  was  also  realized  in  Austria-Hungary  was  proved 
to  me  by  a  remark  of  General  Baron  von  Fejervary,  ex- 
Minister-President  of  Hungary  and  Minister  of  Defence. 
It  was  immediately  after  the  funeral  service  for  King 
Edward  VII.  held  in  May,  1910,  in  the  church  on  the  Calvin- 
ter  in  Budapest. 

The  Emperor  had  had  to  go  to  the  Hungarian  capital 
on  the  day  after  the  King's  death  so  that  the  memorial  service 
had  to  be  held  in  that  city. 

The  court  and  Hungarian  society  were  fully  represented. 
The  Reverend  Crabtree,  the  celebrated  Anglican  vicar, 
delivered  a  sermon  and  in  eloquent  terms  praised  King  Edward 
as  a  lover  of  peace  who  had  made  it  the  object  of  his  life  to 
use  the  methods  of  diplomacy  to  save  Europe  from  the  chances 
of  war  which  lurked  in  the  troubles  and  complications  through 
which  it  was  passing.  In  ringing  tones  the  English  clergyman 
honoured  the  dead  King's  memory  as  that  of  a  "  peacemaker  " 
on  the  throne. 

As  I  was  leaving  the  church  I  met  Baron  Fejervdry 
at  the  door,  and  he  remarked  to  me  candidly  in  a  tone  of 
complete  conviction  : 

"  The  English  clergyman  has  taken  the  words  out  of  my 
mouth.  I — and  everyone  else  who  has  really  considered  the 
question — have  never  doubted  that  Edward  VII. 's  whole 
purpose  in  pursuing  his  '  encirclement '  poHcy  was  to  pre- 
serve the  peace  of  Europe.  The  King  saw  that  it  was  per- 
manently  endangered   by   the   antagonism   between   France 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

and  Germany  on  the  one  hand  and  Russia's  aspirations  in 
the  Balkans  on  the  other  hand.  Hence  the  British  alliance 
with  Japan  and  Edward  VII. 's  efforts  to  keep  Germany's 
military  threats  within  bounds  by  uniting  the  rest  of  Europe 
against  her.  It  is  probable  that  the  future  alone  will  show 
how  far  King  Edward  was  right.  It  is  certainly  a  matter 
for  regret  that  he  is  no  longer  here  to  preserve  that  balance 
which — in  his  own  way,  perhaps — he  strove  so  hard  to 
establish." 

In  Austrian  political  circles,  too,  this  view  was  not  lost 
sight  of.  During  the  period  of  crisis,  1908-9,  both  Count 
Albert  Apponyi  and  Count  Julius  Andrassy,  son  of  the  first 
Foreign  Minister  of  the  Dual  Monarchy,  strongly  urged 
a  rapprochement  between  Austria-Hungary  and  England. 
Further,  in  the  late  autumn  of  1909  I  discussed  the  ques- 
tion with  Professor  Lammasch  who  roundly  declared  that 
the  only  alliance  that  could  secure  Austria-Hungary^ s  future, 
if  not  her  very  boundaries,  was  an  alliance  with  Great 
Britain. 

To  prove  his  point  Lammasch  pointed  to  the  extra- 
ordinarily complicated  European  situation,  and  maintained 
that  a  definitely  central  power  in  Austria-Hungary's  position 
must  succumb  to  the  pressure  from  all  s'des  unless  a  strong 
foreign  power — by  which  he  meant  England — stretched 
out  a  hand  to  protect  her  from  jealous  neighbours.  He  also 
argued,  to  support  his  theory,  that  every  one  of  Austria- 
Hungary's  neighbours  cherished  natural  and  comprehensible 
aspirations  to  some  part  of  her  possessions,  as  all  of  them 
— including  Germany — had  members  of  their  own  race 
within  her  borders.  That  was  not  the  case  with  England, 
and  as  an  understanding  with  England  would  almost  cer- 
tainly lead  via  the  entente  cordiale  to  a  similar  understanding 
with  France,  the  Hapsburg  Monarchy  might  look  forward 
to  an  alliance  with  two  powerful  states  with  which  it  had  no 
frontiers    in   common.      Such   an   alliance    might    easily    be 

26S 


Francis  Joseph's  Foreign  Relations 

followed  by  an  understanding  with  Russia,  or  at  any  rate 
the  renunciation  of  her  Pan-Slav  aspirations. 

I  followed  the  eminent  professor's  profound  analysis  of 
the  situation  with  the  closest  attention,  but  though  it  fas- 
cinated me  I  was  not  immediately  convinced  for  the  reason 
that  such  a  policy  would  involve  a  complete  break  with  Ger- 
many. This  Lammasch  was  not  quite  prepared  to  admit. 
He  thought  it  possible  to  remain  on  good  terms  with 
Germany,  even  in  the  circumstances  he  had  sketched  out 
and  that  without  "  surrendering  our  policy  entirely  into 
Germany's  hands  and  so  heading  straight  for  disaster." 

I  repeated  Dr.  Lammasch's  striking  views  to  the  Arch- 
duke Francis  Ferdinand  in  the  spring  of  1910.  He  was  not 
surprised  as  he  had  already  heard  them  from  another  quarter. 
He  did  not  attach  any  particular  importance  to  them,  dis- 
missing them  as  "  Armchair  diplomacy." 

"  Do  you  know  what  the  consequences  of  such  an  experi- 
ment would  have  been  ?  '  replied  the  heir.  "  Germany 
would  have  at  once  allied  herself  with  Russia,  and  we  should 
have  been  in  a  dilemma  from  which  there  would  be  no  escape. 
We  should  have  had  to  wait  a  long  time  for  help  from  England 
or  France.  The  British  and  French  would  have  kept  out  of 
it,  and  cynically  watched  us  go  under.  Such  behaviour 
would  have  been  natural,  for  their  immediate  interests 
would  not  have  been  involved,  and  after  all  charity  begins 
at  home.  I  have  not  the  least  doubt  that  Germany  will 
find  a  way  to  Russia  if  she  wants  to.  Remember  Bismarck's 
famous  '  Reinsurance  Treaty.'  No ;  this  time  I  agree  with 
Aehrenthal.  I  don't  as  a  rule.  You  have  probably  heard 
that  I  considered  him  as  short-sighted  mentally  as  physically, 
but  a  blind  hen  often  finds  a  grain  of  corn.  I  certainly 
won't  deny  that  it  might  perhaps  have  been  as  well  not  to 
close  all  the  gates  to  an  understanding  with  King  Edward 
and  burn  all  our  boats  as  the  Emperor  did  last  year." 

The  Emperor,  however,  would  have  no  shilly-shallying. 

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He  held  steadfastly  and  straightforwardly  to  the  German 
alliance  and  would  discuss  the  matter  no  further.  His  action 
enhanced  his  reputation  in  Berlin,  for  it  was  a  clear,  frank 
beginning.  Perhaps  the  Emperor  overlooked  the  fact  that 
the  situation  ought  to  be  regarded  as  a  whole,  and  that  the 
Austrian  Empire  had  interests  of  her  own  at  stake.  A  move 
in  the  direction  indicated  by  Edward  VH.  did  not  necessarily 
mean  an  immediate  break  with  Germany,  and  it  would 
have  improved  Austria's  future  prospects.  It  was  not  only 
that  the  Emperor  personally  shrank  from  the  enormous 
responsibility  of  initiating  a  fundamental  change  of  policy. 
His  foreign  ministers  also  were  not  to  be  moved  from  their 
routine  loyalty  to  the  Triple  Alliance,  which  was  synony- 
mous with  the  German  alliance,  the  Alpha  and  Omega  of 
Austria's  blind  foreign  policy  in  the  pre-war  period.  Count 
Aehrenthal,  who  was  at  the  head  of  the  Foreign  Office  during 
the  greater  part  of  this  period,  did  not  dare  to  act  on  the 
Empress  Eugenie's  excellent  motto :  "  I  take  my  luck 
where  I  find  it." 

In  these  circumstances  it  is  not  difficult  to  understand 
why  the  Emperor's  relations  with  the  British  ambassadors 
in  Vienna  were  neither  close  nor  cordial.  There  was,  how- 
ever, one  of  them  who  found  his  way  to  the  intimacy  of 
the  court  and  Viennese  society — Sir  Francis  Plunkett.  A 
Catholic  and  a  member  of  a  particularly  distinguished  Anglo- 
Irish  noble  family,  with  the  help  of  his  wife  and  daughter 
he  was  able  to  make  for  himself  a  position  in  Vienna  almost 
comparable  to  that  formerly  held  by  the  Emperor's  favourite, 
Sir  Augustus  Berkeley  Paget,  and  his  wife,  Lady  Paget,  the 
friend  of  the  Empress  Elizabeth,  and  a  very  popular  figure 
in  the  capital. 

Plunkett's  contemporary,  Lieutenant-Colonel  the  Duke 
of  Teck,  military  attache  to  the  Embassy,  was  also  a  prominent 
figure  in  Vienna.  He  was  the  brother-in-law  of  the  Prince 
of  Wales,  afterwards  King  George  V.,  a  fact  which  in  itself 

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Francis  Joseph's  Foreign  Relations 

assured  him  considerable  distinction.  His  wife  was  a  member 
of  the  very  distinguished  Grosvenor  family,  Dukes  of  West- 
minster, which  also  contributed  not  a  little  to  strengthen 
the  social  position  of  the  Duke  of  Teck.  In  the  circle  of 
the  Archdukes  the  Duke  of  Teck  was  regarded  as  an  absolute 
equal,  and  so  they  tumbled  over  one  another  in  their  anxiety 
to  give  him  the  most  detailed  information,  both  officially 
and  through  private  channels,  about  the  Austro-Hungarian 
military  and  naval  services,  and  particularly  their  estab- 
lishments. This  proved  a  very  great  mistake,  for,  when 
the  Duke  of  Teck  left  Vienna,  it  was  found  that  he  was  by 
no  means  a  friend  of  the  Hapsburgs  and  their  peoples  after 
all.  It  was  even  whispered  that  in  his  reports  to  King 
Edward  VII.  and  the  British  Government  he  had  described 
the  situation  in  the  Dual  Monarchy  as  very  critical,  and 
called  it  a  tottering  structure  only  awaiting  the  coup  de  grace. 
I  do  not  know  whether  all  this  was  true,  but  the  moral  depres- 
sion which  overtook  certain  circles  of  Austrian  society  when 
the  Duke  of  Teck  returned  to  England  did  not  escape  my 
notice. 

The  Emperor  maintained  a  fairly  close  connection  with 
the  English  Army.  Queen  Victoria  had  appointed  him 
Honorary  Colonel  of  the  ist  King's  Dragoon  Guards,  to 
which  military  honour  King  Edward  VII. — as  I  have  already 
mentioned — added  that  of  a  British  Field-Marshal.  The 
King's  Dragoon  Guards  were  very  fond  of  the  Emperor, 
and  showed  their  respect  and  veneration  in  many  ways. 
These  relations  continued  after  the  regiment  was  ordered 
to  Ambala  in  India,  and  were  for  that  reason  the  more  highly 
valued.  It  should  be  mentioned  that  Queen  Victoria 
granted  the  regiment  the  right  to  wear  on  their  collars  the 
Austrian  double-eagle,  in  gold  lace  for  the  officers  and  gilt 
metal  for  the  men ;  an  unusual  mark  of  respect  to  the 
Emperor,  by  whom  it  was  valued  highly.  When  the  King's 
Dragoon    Guards    left    for    India   a   deputation   of    officers 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

presented  the  Emperor  with  the  flag  under  which  the  regi- 
ment had  taken  part  in  the  famous  charge  at  Balaclava  on  25th 
October,  1854.  This  the  Emperor  kept  in  his  private  apart- 
ments at  the  Hofburg,  where  he  showed  it  with  pride  to 
his  guests. 

It  was  obvious  that  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  took  the 
greatest  pride  in  his  membership  of  the  British  Army.  He 
never  neglected  an  opportunity  of  showing  it  and  thereby- 
drawing  closer  the  ties  that  united  him  to  that  army  and 
the  English  Royal  house.  In  1904  he  commissioned  Professor 
Benezur,  the  celebrated  Budapest  painter,  to  paint  a  life- 
size  portrait  of  him  in  the  uniform  of  the  ist  King's  Dragoon 
Guards.  It  was  a  masterpiece  and  he  sent  it  to  King  Edward 
for  Buckingham  Palace. 

Some  time  later  the  Emperor  had  himself  painted  for  the 
Military  Club  in  London  in  the  uniform  of  an  English  field- 
marshal.  He  thoroughly  enjoyed  wearing  English  uniform 
— in  spite  of  the  discomfort  it  meant  to  a  man  of  his  advanced 
years — and  the  numerous  sittings  the  portrait  involved. 

When  an  English  squadron  anchored  off  Trieste  in  July, 
1908,  the  Emperor  immediately  asked  the  British  admirals 
— Drury  and  Prince  Louis  of  Battenberg — to  come  to  Ischl, 
welcomed  them  there  as  his  guests,  invited  them  to  his  family 
table  and  overwhelmed  them  with  special  attentions. 

In  June,  191 1,  when  the  Emperor  was  staying  at  the  Villa 
of  Hermes,  General  Brownlow,  the  second  Honorary  Colonel 
of  the  King's  Dragoon  Guards,  died.  Although  the  dead 
officer  was  not  known  to  him  personally,  the  old  sovereign 
immediately  sent  telegrams  of  warm  sympathy  to  King 
George  V.,  the  War  Office,  the  English  regiment  in  India 
and  General  Brownlow's  relatives.  The  best  proof  of  the 
profound  impression  produced  by  the  Emperor's  action  is 
the  fact  that  the  very  same  evening  an  unusually  long  telegram 
of  thanks  arrived  from  the  War  Minister,  Haldane,  in  which 
reference  was  made  in  moving  words  to  the  Emperor's  touch- 

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Francis  Joseph's  Foreign  Relations 

ing  expression  of  sympathy,  and  a  hope  was  expressed  that 
he  would  always  feel  that  sense  of  association  with  the  British 
Army  which  did  it  so  much  honour. 

The  Emperor  was  only  too  glad  to  seize  every  possible 
chance  of  giving  public  expression  to  the  very  high  opinion 
he  always  had  of  the  British  nation. 

What  I  have  said  about  King  Edward  VII.  of  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland  may  form  a  natural  bridge  to  his  father- 
in-law,  King  Christian  IX.  of  Denmark. 

The  ancient  feud  between  King  Christian  and  the 
Emperor,  dating  from  1864,  had  in  my  time  been  long  for- 
gotten, and  the  two  old  rulers  were  bound  together  by  ties 
of  close  friendship. 

King  Christian  IX.  often  came  to  Vienna,  and  every 
year  to  Gmunden,  to  visit  his  daughter,  the  Duchess  of 
Cumberland.  Francis  Joseph  never  missed  these  oppor- 
tunities of  paying  a  visit  to  the  King  and  inviting  him  to 
dinner  at  Schonbrunn  or  Ischl.  The  two  monarchs  were 
always  on  the  most  intimate  terms. 

The  Emperor  extended  his  friendship  for  King 
Christian  IX.  to  his  sons,  the  prince  who  became  King 
Frederick  VIII.  and  Prince  Valdemar.  The  former  came 
incognito  to  Vienna  for  several  weeks  almost  every  year  and 
was  well  known  to  the  population  of  the  capital.  The 
latter  used  to  spend  part  of  the  summer  with  his  children 
at  the  castle  of  the  Duke  of  Cumberland  at  Gmunden,  when 
he  was  repeatedly  invited  to  the  Emperor's  table  at  Ischl. 

The  Emperor  never  knew  the  present  Danish  King 
Charles  X.  or  his  brother  King  Haakon  of  Norway. 

Charles  IX.'s  second  son.  King  George  I.  of  Greece,  in- 
herited his  father's  affection  for  the  Emperor.  Like  his 
brother.  King  Frederick  VIII.  of  Denmark,  he  was  a  frequent 
guest  at  Vienna,  where  every  autumn  he  spent  a  few  weeks 
incognito.  He  never  failed  to  call  upon  the  Emperor,  and 
was  always  invited  to  the  imperial  table. 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

The  Emperor  was  deeply  shocked  at  the  tragic  end  that 
overtook  King  George  I.  of  Greece,  who  had  deserved  so 
well  of  his  people.  He  always  kept  him  in  affectionate 
remembrance,  which  was  often  expressed  in  letters  to  his 
son  and  successor,  King  Constantine.  The  Emperor  never 
had  any  opportunity  of  getting  to  know  the  latter  personally. 

Among  the  members  of  the  Swedish  Royal  family,  who 
were  also  connected  by  marriage  with  the  Danish  Royal 
house,  King  Oscar  II.  enjoyed  a  special  position  in  the 
Emperor's  favour.  Equality  in  age  for  one  thing  brought 
the  two  rulers  together.  When,  in  February,  1904,  the 
Swedish  King  visited  the  Emperor  in  Vienna  on  his  way  to 
Abbazia,  the  latter  made  every  effort  to  show  how  greatly 
this  visit  delighted  him.  A  few  weeks  later,  at  Easter,  he 
returned  the  King's  visit  at  Abbazia  and  greeted  the  Swedish 
Queen  who  had  followed  her  husband. 

In  the  following  year  a  slight  estrangement  arose  between 
the  two  old  monarchs.  The  reason  was  an  indirect,  or  rather 
a  moral  one. 

In  the  spring  of  1905  the  Norwegians  separated  com- 
pletely from  Sweden  and  appeared  in  the  political  arena  of 
Europe  as  an  independent  state.  King  Oscar  II.  had  no 
idea  of  holding  Norway  back  from  this  step.  He  simply 
accepted  the  separation  as  a  fact  and  did  not  hesitate  to 
acknowledge  Haakon  VII.,  a  son  of  Frederick  VIII.  of  Den- 
mark. Oscar  II. 's  conduct  testifies  to  a  broad-minded 
clear-sightedness,  but  Francis  Joseph  thought  differently. 
It  seemed  to  him  a  callous  surrender  of  traditional  and 
prescriptive  rights,  and  he  stated  frankly  that  the  Swedish 
King  had  no  right  to  give  up  Norway  without  a  struggle. 
What  chiefly  irritated  the  Emperor  was  that  Oscar  II.  had 
created  a  precedent  which  might  easily  be  followed  else- 
where. It  is  not  difficult  to  guess  whither  the  Emperor's 
train  of  thought  led  him.  The  bogey  of  Hungary  appeared 
before  his  eyes,  and  he  was  afraid  of  the  pressure  that  might 

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Francis  Joseph's  Foreign  Relations 

be  brought  to  bear  by  the  precedent  of  Oscar's  example  if 
Hungary's  efforts  to  break  away — ^just  then  reaching  a  critical 
stage — should  really  become  strenuous. 

When,  in  November,  1908,  Oscar  II.'s  successor,  King 
Gustavus  Adolphus  V.,  with  his  Queen,  nee  Princess  Victoria 
of  Baden,  paid  their  first  visit  after  the  coronation,  bringing 
to  the  Emperor  Sweden's  congratulations  on  his  diamond 
jubilee,  a  little  incident  occurred  which  showed  the  Emperor's 
fastidious  regard  for  the  correctness  of  his  foreign  uniforms. 

For  many  years  Francis  Joseph  had  held  the  rank  of  a 
Swedish  general.  Some  weeks  before  the  arrival  of  King 
Gustavus  V.  it  became  known  that  a  new  regulation  had 
been  issued  in  the  Swedish  army.  The  old  uniforms, 
modelled  in  cut  and  style  on  the  French,  had  been  replaced 
suddenly  by  a  new  uniform  of  German  model.  The  Emperor 
immediately  gave  orders  that  a  new  Swedish  uniform  should 
be  made  for  him.  This  was  brought  to  Vienna  from  Stock- 
holm by  special  courier,  and  the  Emperor  appeared  at  the 
station  wearing  it  to  greet  the  Swedish  King  and  Queen  on 
their  arrival  in  his  capital.  When  the  King  stepped  out  of 
the  train  and  saw  the  Emperor  standing  before  him  in  his  new 
uniform  he  stood  for  a  moment  motionless  with  surprise, 
for  he  could  scarcely  believe  his  eyes.  He  said  afterwards, 
in  a  tone  of  the  greatest  astonishment : 

"  Great    Heavens !     the   new   uniform    already  ?     And   I 
haven't  got  one  myself  yet !  " 

In  my  time  at  the  court  there  was  very  little  intercourse 
between  Francis  Joseph  and  Belgium  or  Holland,  and  that 
only  when  necessity  arose. 

In  October,  1903,  the  old  King  of  the  Belgians,  Leopold  II., 
paid  a  visit  to  Vienna  and  stayed  at  the  Hofburg.  The 
Emperor  took  no  trouble  to  conceal  the  fact  that  he  was  not 
friendly  to  the  aged  Belgian  King.  The  principal  reason 
was  Leopold's  unnatural  treatment  of  his  daughter  Stephanie, 
widow  of  the  Crown  Prince  Rudolph,  but  there  was  also  the 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

King's   private  life,   which   Francis   Joseph   disapproved   of. 
He  had  no  sympathy  for  it,  nor  for  the  King's  other  passions. 

"  King  Leopold  is  just  a  business  man,"  he  used  to  remark. 
"  He  may  be  all  right  in  his  place.  But  I  won't  have  dealings 
with  business  men,  especially  when  they  sit  on  thrones." 

Strangely  enough,  Leopold's  nephew  and  successor,  the 
universally  admired  King  Albert,  was  not  particularly  liked 
by  Francis  Joseph.  When,  in  October,  191  o,  the  latter 
visited  Vienna,  accompanied  by  his  charming  wife,  daughter 
of  Duke  Charles  Theodore  of  Bavaria  and  therefore  the 
Emperor's  niece,  Francis  Joseph  showed  no  cordiality  towards 
them.  He  found  the  King  and  Queen  tremendously  in- 
tellectual and  referred  to  them  in  a  sarcastic  tone,  quite 
unusual  to  him,  as  "  merely  a  couple  of  professors." 

"  One  must  be  on  one's  guard  not  to  make  blunders  when 
talking  to  them,  and  that  is  fatiguing,"  he  complained  to 
Count  Paar.  "  I  should  prefer  the  King  to  be  rather  more 
of  a  soldier ;  then  I  should  get  on  better  with  him.  That 
there  is  so  little  of  the  soldier  about  him  puts  me  off." 

Queen  Wilhelmina  of  Holland  only  once  stayed  at  Vienna 
for  a  few  days,  and  in  the  strictest  incognito.  The  Emperor, 
however,  took  the  opportunity  of  paying  her  a  visit  in  the 
hotel  where  she  was  staying  and  returned  very  pleased. 
In  September,  1903,  when  her  husband  Prince  Henry  paid 
an  official  visit  to  the  Emperor,  he  invited  him  to  stay  at  the 
Hofburg  as  his  guest,  met  him  ceremoniously  at  the  station 
on  his  arrival  and  showed  him  during  his  visit  all  the  honours 
due  to  a  ruling  monarch. 

The  Emperor's  relations  with  the  young  King  of  Spain, 
Alfonso  XHL,  were  based  on  the  latter's  family  relationship 
with  the  Hapsburg  house  and  the  Emperor's  very  great 
admiration  for  Maria  Christina,  the  King's  mother.  When, 
in  August,  1902,  the  Emperor  learned  that  she  had  arrived 
in  Baden,  after  long  years  of  absence  from  her  Austrian 
home,  to  visit  her  brother  the  Archduke  Frederick,  he  imme- 

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Francis  Joseph  *s  Foreign  Relations 

diately  interrupted  his  visit  to  Ischl  for  a  few  days  to  visit 
the  Queen  Mother. 

When,  therefore,  Alfonso  XIII.  paid  his  first  visit  as 
King  in  November,  1905,  he  received  an  enthusiastic  wel- 
come and  the  vigorous,  and  at  the  same  time  attractive, 
personality  of  the  young  Spanish  King  at  once  impressed 
the  Emperor  favourably.  This  impression  was  confirmed 
in  October,  1908,  when  Alfonso  XIII.  arrived  at  Budapest 
with  his  beautiful  and  charming  wife  Queen  Victoria  Eugenia, 
to  congratulate  the  Emperor  on  his  diamond  jubilee. 
Brilliant  festivities  were  held  in  the  magnificent  palace  at 
Budapest,  and  the  population  of  the  Hungarian  capital  also 
did  their  part  to  commemorate  the  visit  of  the  young  couple 
in  a  fitting  manner. 

The  Spanish  King  took  advantage  of  this  enthusiastic 
reception  to  associate  the  Emperor  directly  and  personally 
with  the  Spanish  army.  On  his  first  visit  he  appointed 
him  Honorary  Colonel  of  the  38th  Leon  Infantry  Regiment, 
and  on  the  second,  to  the  rank  of  Spanish  Major-General. 

There  was  little  connection  between  the  Emperor  and 
Portugal.  Both  King  Carlos  and  his  second  son  and  heir, 
Manuel,  were  not  much  liked  by  the  Emperor.  The  way 
in  which  Manuel  lost  his  throne  disgusted  the  Emperor 
greatly.  When,  in  May,  191 1,  Prince  Emanuel  of  Orleans, 
the  Duke  of  Vendome,  visited  him  at  GodoUo  and  the  con- 
versation turned  to  the  subject  of  King  Manuel,  who  had 
fled  from  Portugal  to  England,  the  Prince  pointed  out  that 
the  King  still  nursed  hopes  of  one  day  returning  to  Lisbon 
as  a  ruler.  The  Emperor  broke  in  with  the  following  severe 
opinion  : 

"  Nothing  of  the  sort !  When  a  King  runs  away  in  such 
despicable  fashion  at  the  first  disturbance,  with  no  thought 
for  anything  but  his  own  safety,  there  can  be  no  return.  The 
Portuguese  would  show  little  sense  if  they  wanted  to  saddle 
themselves  with  him  again." 

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This  judgment  was  the  keynote  of  the  Emperor's  treat- 
ment of  King  Manuel  when,  in  the  following  year,  he  spent 
a  few  days  in  Vienna,  in  the  course  of  a  visit  to  Germany. 
He  granted  him  a  short  audience  and  did  not  trouble  his  head 
about  him  any  further.  When  King  Manuel  asked  for  a 
photograph  of  the  Emperor,  Francis  Joseph  gave  him  one, 
but  with  his  signature  alone ;  no  inscription  or  friendly 
dedication.  The  Emperor  often  gave  away  such  photo- 
graphs ;  he  did  not  feel  called  upon  to  do  any  more  for  the 
ex-King  of  Portugal.  When  I  took  this  photograph  to  King 
Manuel,  he  looked  at  it  with  disappointment  and  stammered 
a  few  words  of  thanks  with  his  eyes  fixed  on  the  ground. 

In  addition  to  the  Emperor  William  II.,  Francis  Joseph 
had  another  close  and  loyal  friend  among  his  contemporary 
rulers,  I  mean  King  Charles  I.  of  Rumania.  It  is  well  known 
that  he  was  in  every  respect  a  splendid  king  and  that  mainly 
to  his  efforts  the  nation  over  which  he  reigned  owes  that 
development  which  has  assured  her  a  place  of  honour  among 
the  states  of  Europe.  The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and 
King  Charles  were  knit  together  by  the  closest  friendship. 
For  many  years  the  Rumanian  King  came  to  Gastein  for  a 
cure  and  he  regularly  visited  the  Emperor  at  Ischl.  Those 
were  red-letter  days  for  the  old  monarch ;  his  spirits  rose 
visibly  when  he  had  King  Charles  with  him.  This  idyllic 
friendship  between  the  two  rulers  resulted  in  the  best  of 
relations  between  Austria-Hungary  and  Rumania,  and  so 
long  as  King  Charles  lived  the  people  of  Vienna  regarded 
Rumania  as  a  trusty  and  valuable  ally,  although  there  was 
no  official  alliance  between  the  two  countries. 

King  Charles'  wife.  Queen  Elizabeth,  known  by  her 
nom-de-'plume  "  Carmen  Sylva "  as  an  excellent  German 
poetess,  was  also  a  zealous  champion  of  the  political  rapproche- 
ment between  her  country  and  Austria-Hungary.  This 
clever  woman  rightly  saw  in  the  true  friendship  that  asso- 
ciated King  Charles  and  Francis  Joseph  the  surest  guarantee 

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of  her  success.  There  is  striking  memorial  of  this  friendship 
in  the  wonderful  summer  residence  of  the  Rumanian  King 
and  Queen,  the  famous  Castle  Pelesch  at  Sinaia,  at  the 
southern  edge  of  the  richly-wooded  Carpathians.  During 
Francis  Joseph's  visit  to  this  castle  in  1897  the  Queen  asked 
him  to  hold  King  Charles'  hand,  and  then  had  the  clasped 
hands  of  the  two  monarchs  modelled  from  nature  and  carved 
in  marble  by  the  Budapest  sculptor  Strobl.  This  original 
work  of  art  was  to  be  an  emblem  of  the  close  bond  which 
joined  Austria-Hungary  and  Rumania. 

Unfortunately  the  friendship  did  not  survive  King  Charles, 
for  his  nephew  and  heir,  Ferdinand  of  HohenzoUern-Sig- 
maringen,  went  other  ways  which  led  him,  during  the  war 
and  even  in  the  old  Emperor's  Hfetime,  into  the  camp  of 
Austria's  enemies. 

The  death  of  King  Charles,  therefore,  was  in  a  double 
sense  a  very  heavy  loss  for  the  Emperor.  The  political 
consequences  brought  about  by  the  death  of  the  first  Ru- 
manian King,  a  firm  friend  in  every  way  of  the  Central 
Powers,  soon  gave  rise  to  a  rumour  in  Vienna  that  he  had 
been  forcibly  got  out  of  the  way  at  the  instigation  of  the 
Entente.  The  Emperor  placed  no  faith  in  this  rumour  from 
the  first.  About  six  months  after  King  Charles'  death, 
however,  Duchess  Paul  of  Mecklenburg  came  to  Vienna 
after  a  visit  to  Rumania.  When  I  met  her  at  the  Hofburg 
she  told  me  with  genuine  conviction  that  King  Charles  had 
been  poisoned.  She  said  that  she  had  heard  this  from  Queen 
Elizabeth  herself,  and  there  seemed  not  the  slightest  doubt 
as  to  the  correctness  of  the  statement.  On  the  evening 
before  his  death  King  Charles  had  ordered  a  cup  of  tea  to 
be  brought  to  his  bedroom.  It  was  brought  by  a  servant 
who,  as  was  established  later,  was  not  trustworthy,  and  the 
tea  was  poisoned.  The  Duchess  Mecklenburg  told  the  same 
story  to  the  Emperor,  but  he  was  most  reluctant  to  believe  it. 

Ferdinand  and  his  wife,  Queen  Marie,  daughter  of  Duke 

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Alfred  of  Saxe-Coburg,  formerly  Duke  of  Edinburgh,  and 
granddaughter  of  Queen  Victoria  of  England,  were  not  liked 
by  the  Emperor.  I  noticed  this  when  King  Ferdinand, 
then  heir  to  the  throne,  was  present,  at  the  Emperor's  invita- 
tion, at  the  grand  manoeuvres  held  in  September,  1901,  in 
Slavonia  and  Southern  Hungary.  The  Emperor  did  not  take 
much  notice  of  his  guest,  treating  him  with  cold  courtesy. 
When  the  Rumanian  heir  arrived  very  late  for  a  Mass  for 
the  Emperor  and  his  Staff,  at  the  end  of  the  service  Francis 
Joseph  dropped  the  remark  : 

"  I  detest  unpunctuality,  especially  in  the  members  of 
a  ruling  house." 

Again,  when  Prince  Ferdinand  came  to  Vienna  in  Novem- 
ber, 1908,  as  the  representative  of  his  royal  father,  to  bring 
Rumania's  congratulations  on  the  Emperor's  Diamond  Ju- 
bilee, the  latter  said  feelingly :  "  It  is  a  real  pity  that  King 
Charles  couldn't  come  himself.  That  would  have  been  a 
great  pleasure.  The  King  has  done  me  no  kindness  by 
sending  me  his  nephew." 

It  is  not  easy  to  say  what  was  the  Emperor's  real  opinion 
of  King  Ferdinand  of  Bulgaria.  I  believe  he  had  a  really 
high  opinion  of  the  latter's  outstanding  qualities,  extra- 
ordinary ability  and  almost  unique  skill  as  a  ruler,  but  he 
apparently  wished  no  one  to  know.  I  never  understood 
this  curious  attitude ;  perhaps  it  was  based  on  something 
that  had  happened  in  the  past.  On  the  first  occasion  on 
which  I  saw  these  two  rulers  together — at  Ischl  in  August, 
1907 — I  was  unable  to  avoid  the  impression  that  Francis 
Joseph  did  not  treat  Prince  Ferdinand  of  Bulgaria,  as  he 
was  then,  as  one  would  have  expected. 

I  noticed  the  same  thing  in  the  following  year,  September, 
1908,  when  Prince  Ferdinand,  accompanied  by  Princess 
Eleonora,  paid  an  official  visit  to  Budapest.  I  regretted  it 
very  much,  for  I  confess  openly  that  I  never  felt  the  same 
admiration  for  any  other  sovereign  as  for  Prince  Ferdinand 

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of  Bulgaria.  He  struck  me  as  a  King  in  the  best  sense  of  the 
word.  Exceptionally  cultured  and  of  outstanding  intelli- 
gence, distinguished  and  far-sighted  in  everything  that  he 
undertook,  I  could  not  have  wished  for  a  more  desirable 
friend  for  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph. 

The  Emperor  seemed  gradually  to  come  to  a  better 
understanding  of  the  Tsar  of  Bulgaria.  This  became  to 
some  extent  obvious  during  his  visits  to  the  Court  of  Vienna 
in  June,  191 2,  and  in  February,  1916.  But  it  was  too  late, 
for  had  Francis  Joseph  earlier  sought  the  counsel  of  the 
Bulgarian  king  and  made  a  friend  of  him,  I  believe  that  the 
effect  on  his  policy  would  have  been  in  many  ways  bene- 
ficial. After  the  death  of  Edward  VII.  of  England  the  Tsar 
Ferdinand  was  decidedly  the  most  important  sovereign  in 
Europe,  and  Francis  Joseph  would  have  done  well  to  treat 
him  with  greater  deference  than  was  formally  due  to  a 
sovereign  of  a  minor  power.  The  Emperor's  exaggerated 
respect  for  etiquette  in  this  respect  is  exemplified  by  his 
hesitation  to  bestow  upon  the  Tsar  Ferdinand  the  Order  of 
the  Golden  Fleece.  The  King  of  Bulgaria's  claim  to  this 
honour  was  all  the  greater  as  his  brother.  Prince  Philip  of 
Saxe-Coburg  and  Gotha,  already  possessed  it.  And  yet, 
thanks  to  the  petty  and  irrelevant  objections  of  the  Foreign 
Minister,  Count  Aehrenthal,  the  Emperor  hesitated  for 
years  before  making  Tsar  Ferdinand  a  Knight  of  the  Golden 
Fleece.  It  was  another  example  of  the  policy  of  pin-pricks, 
unfortunately  too  common  in  Vienna  which  had  never 
been  so  misguidedly  applied  as  in  the  case  of  the  Bulgarian 
Tsar. 

I  had  personal  experience  of  one  phase  of  this  unedifying 
policy.  In  August,  19 10,  Count  Paar  had  succeeded  in 
obtaining  the  Golden  Fleece  for  the  King  of  Bulgaria  direct 
from  the  Emperor  on  the  occasion  of  Francis  Joseph's 
eightieth  birthday.  This  time  everything  seemed  definitely 
settled  at  last  and  I,  always  a  sincere  admirer  of  the  Tsar 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

Ferdinand,  was  very  pleased.  But  when  Count  Aehrenthal 
got  wind  of  the  decision  he  immediately  threw  in  all  the 
weight  of  his  position — as  he  had  done  in  1907  and  1908 — to 
cancel  the  bestowal  of  the  Order,  already  definitely  sanc- 
tioned.    In  this,  unfortunately,  he  succeeded. 

I  was  very  indignant  and  at  the  first  opportunity  which 
brought  me  into  contact  with  Aehrenthal  could  not  refrain 
from  asking  him  what  were  his  motives  for  this  extraordinary 
behaviour  towards  the  King  of  Bulgaria.  Aehrenthal  said 
that  it  was  very  much  to  the  discredit  of  Francis  Ferdinand 
to  have  allowed  the  Crown  Prince  Boris  to  go  over  from 
the  Roman  Catholic  to  the  Greek  Church,  and  that  he  had 
also  allied  himself  in  his  second  marriage  with  Princess 
Eleonora  of  Reuss,  a  Protestant  princess ;  such  conduct  was 
not  in  keeping  with  membership  of  a  Catholic  Order  far 
excellence  like  the  Golden  Fleece.  I  had  no  difficulty  in 
pointing  out  to  Aehrenthal  the  inconsistency  of  his  argu- 
ments because,  in  1909,  Prince  Ferdinand  of  Rumania, 
then  heir  to  the  throne,  had  become  a  Knight  of  the  Golden 
Fleece.  His  wife  was  an  Anglican  and  his  children  were 
baptized  in  the  Greek  Church.  My  retort  at  first  non- 
plussed Aehrenthal ;  then  he  got  angry  and  cried  excitedly  : 
"  You  are  forgetting  that  Prince  Ferdinand  of  Rumania 
enjoys  the  special  favour  of  the  Archduke  Francis  Ferdinand 
and  his  wife,  which  is  not  the»case  with  the  King  of  Bulgaria." 
I  parried  this  remark  by  saying  :  "  All  the  more  honour  to 
the  Bulgarian  Tsar  ;  he  is  too  proud  and  too  much  the  grand 
seigneur  to  court  the  favour  of  the  Princess  of  Hohenberg.'* 
King  Ferdinand  of  Bulgaria  was  finally  appointed  a  Knight 
of  the  Golden  Fleece  in  191 1.  The  Emperor,  in  this  case, 
had  hesitated  much  too  long,  thanks  to  the  bad  advice  of 
short-sighted  ministers. 

The  old  Emperor  was  much  more  gracious  to  King 
Nicholas  of  Montenegro  who,  even  as  a  prince,  was  a  frequent 
and  welcome  guest  at  Vienna.     In  the  spring  of  1905,  when 

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Prince  Nicholas  came  to  Vienna  suffering  severely  from 
gout,  the  Emperor  personally  visited  the  prince  in  the  room 
in  his  hotel  to  which  he  was  confined.  When,  in  June,  191 2, 
Nicholas  of  Montenegro  came  to  the  Hofburg  to  present 
himself  to  the  Emperor  as  King,  the  latter  honoured  him 
by  appointing  him  to  the  90th  Infantry  Regiment.  Francis 
Joseph  found  much  that  he  liked  in  King  Nicholas.  He 
recognized  him  as  a  man  of  extraordinarily  keen  understand- 
ing and  many  exceptional  qualities.  But  he  did  not 
altogether  trust  him.  He  knew  that  the  King  was  in  close 
touch  with  the  political  enemies  of  the  Monarchy  and  would 
not  hesitate,  when  the  moment  came,  to  range  himself  on 
the  side  of  Austria's  enemies.  But  the  frank  bearing  and 
manner  of  King  Nicholas  delighted  him,  and  he  accepted 
with  satisfaction  his  repeated  avowals  of  respect  and  friend- 
ship, particularly  as  coming  from  a  man  of  his  own  age,  a 
consideration  which  had  great  weight  with  Francis  Joseph. 

Francis  Joseph  had  complete  confidence  in  the  Monte- 
negrin Crown  Prince  Danilo  and  his  wife  Militza,  nee  Princess 
Jutta  of  Mecklenburg-Strelitz,  for  he  knew  that  Danilo  was 
really  devoted  both  to  him  and  the  Hapsburg  Empire. 

With  the  court  of  Constantinople  Francis  Joseph  had 
few  dealings,  at  any  rate  of  a  personal  nature.  The  Sultan 
Abdul-Hamid  H.  and  his  successor,  Mohammed  V.,  never 
left  their  palace,  and  were  therefore  unknown  to  him.  On 
the  other  hand  Turkish  dignitaries  used  to  visit  Vienna  or 
Ischl,  as  also  did  large  Turkish  deputations,  such  as  that 
which  conveyed  to  the  Emperor  the  Turkish  Order  of 
Chanedan-i-Ali-Osman.  All  these  were,  of  course,  received 
by  the  Emperor  with  every  honour. 

With  the  Serbian  Royal  House  we  come  to  the  dark 
cloud  which  always  hung  over  the  Hapsburg  monarchy, 
and  it  is  difficult  to  avoid  discussing  some  unpleasant  facts. 

So  long  as  King  Milan  Obrenowitsch  sat  on  the  throne 
of  Belgrade,  relations  between  him  and  the  Emperor  Francis 

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Joseph  left  nothing  to  be  desired.  Milan  always  showed 
himself  the  faithful  friend  of  Austria,  took  up  his  residence 
in  Vienna  after  his  abdication,  and  died  there.  The  Emperor 
honoured  the  memory  of  this  friendship  and  in  February, 
1 901,  attended  his  funeral  in  person. 

But  with  Milan's  son,  the  unlucky  King  Alexander, 
began  a  period  of  somewhat  strained  relations  with  the 
Hapsburg  court.  The  tension  became  more  marked  on  his 
marriage  with  Draga  Maschin,  a  step  of  which  the  proud 
Emperor  deeply  disapproved.  At  one  time  it  looked  as 
though  King  Alexander  would  succeed  in  bridging  the  gulf 
between  himself  and  Vienna.  This  was  in  February,  1903, 
when,  accompanied  by  his  wife  and  a  large  suite,  he  visited 
his  father's  grave  at  Kruschedol.  The  Emperor  had  ordered 
great  preparations  to  be  made  as  a  fitting  honour  to  the 
royal  couple  on  Slavonian  territory.  King  Alexander  was 
deeply  touched  and  thanked  the  Emperor  in  heartfelt  words. 
He  said  he  would  take  the  first  opportunity  of  visiting  the 
Emperor  personally  to  express  his  gratitude. 

He  never  had  a  chance.  The  bloody  night  of  the  13  th 
June,  1903,  put  an  end  to  the  Obrenowitsch  dynasty  and 
Peter  Karageorgiewitsch  reigned  in  their  stead.  Owing  to 
the  justified  suspicion  that  he  was  not  unconcerned  in  the 
murder  of  his  predecessor,  the  Emperor  always  felt  an  aversion 
to  him,  especially  as  he  also  knew  that  King  Peter  had  for 
a  long  time  past  been  deliberately  encouraging  pan-Serbian 
intrigues,  even  within  the  Austrian  Empire,  and  was,  indeed, 
the  moving  spirit  of  the  agitation. 

The  Emperor  would  have  nothing  to  do  with  Serbia  so 
that  the  relations  of  the  Empire  with  that  country  were 
somewhat  peculiar.  I  often  had  the  impression  that  the 
Ballhausplatz  did  not  really  know  what  it  wanted. 

It  indulged  in  constant  petty  humiliations  of  Serbia 
without  venturing  to  take  a  strong  line,  for  which,  on  several 
occasions,  there  would  have  been  a  good  excuse.     For  years 

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every  attempt  at  rapprochement  on  the  part  of  Serbia,  of 
which  several  were  made,  was  rejected ;  King  Peter,  in  spite 
of  advances  on  his  part,  was  not  received  by  the  Emperor 
Francis  Joseph,  and  finally  the  short-sighted  Hungarian 
agrarian  policy  played  its  part  in  turning  Serbia  into  the 
bitter  enemy  of  Austria.  This  was  obvious  to  all  in  the 
autumn  of  1908,  when  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina  were  in- 
corporated in  the  Monarchy.  Belgrade  protested  most 
passionately  against  this  measure,  though  it  was  a  very 
natural  step,  in  view  of  the  general  political  situation,  and 
even  began  to  rattle  the  sabre.  This  it  could  afford  to  do, 
for  behind  Serbia — perhaps  for  the  first  time  openly — stood 
Russia.  The  Emperor  saw  these  complications  looming 
ahead  and  he  therefore  always  favoured  a  reconciliation  with 
Serbia,  especially  after  1908  and  1909,  when  the  excitement 
in  Belgrade  had  begun  to  wane. 

I  often  discussed  this  question  with  the  Military  Attache 
at  the  Serbian  Legation  in  Vienna,  Colonel  Leschjanin,  who 
had  deservedly  enjoyed  the  close  confidence  of  King  Milan. 
Leschjanin  strongly  favoured  the  restoration  of  neighbourly 
relations  between  Serbia  and  Austria-Hungary.  The  Serbian 
Minister  Simitsch,  who  was  highly  esteemed  by  the  Emperor, 
also  worked  for  this  end.  Both  were  unsparing  in  their 
efforts,  but  unfortunately  without  success,  for  their  very 
natural  desire  that  King  Peter  should  be  received  by  the 
Emperor  was  not  gratified.  The  latter  would  ultimately 
have  been  somewhat  disposed  to  give  way,  but  the  foreign 
ministers,  Aehrenthal  and  Berchtold,  were  against  it  and 
contrived  to  prevent  it.  Hungarian  influence  was  certainly 
at  work,  for  the  ruling  circles  in  Budapest  were  quite  satisfied 
with  the  Empire's  unhappy  relations  with  Serbia,  which 
opened  the  door  to  many  possibilities,  not  the  least  being 
the  elimination  of  Serbian  competition  in  the  export  of 
cattle  and  grain. 

The   Emperor   Francis   Joseph,   unfortunately,   heard   of 

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these  matters  only  through  the  medium  of  his  official  advisers, 
who  once  more  led  him  along  the  wrong  path,  for  when  the 
Balkan  wars  of  191 2  and  191 3  raised  Serbia  to  the  status  of 
an  important  power  it  was  no  longer  easy  to  make  advances 
to  the  Belgrade  government. 

The  Serbians  now  began  to  put  forward  demands  and 
show  their  teeth.  The  situation  became  daily  more  strained, 
and  finally  the  Emperor  and  his  ministers  realized  that  it  was 
too  late  to  make  friendly  approaches  to  Serbia.  In  spite 
of  many  conferences,  no  way  was  found  out  of  the  muddle 
which  Austria's  entirely  mistaken  Balkan  policy  had  brought 
about.  To  these  rapidly  increasing  difficulties  was  added 
the  estrangement  of  Rumania  as  the  result  of  Count  Berch- 
told's  refusal  to  recognize  the  Bucharest  Treaty  in  191 3. 
This  was  naturally  a  heavy  blow  to  the  Emperor. 

At  Christmas,  191 3,  depressed  by  all  the  misfortunes 
which  had  occurred,  he  said  gloomily  to  Count  Paar  : 

"  The  only  man  who  foresaw  everything  was  the  King 
of  Bulgaria.  If  we  had  only  listened  to  him  in  time  !  After 
all,  would  it  have  mattered  so  much  if  Serbia  had  obtained 
an  Adriatic  port  ?  I  don't  think  it  would  ;  why  shouldn't 
she  have  a  window  on  to  the  world  ?  I  think  it  might  even 
have  been  an  advantage  to  Austria  to  be  able  to  get  corn  and 
grain  direct  from  a  Serbian  port  to  Trieste.  At  the  same 
time  it  would  have  put  an  end  to  Hungarian  discontent. 
That  would  have  more  than  pleased  me." 

But  it  was  too  late.  After  the  mistakes  of  the  Balkan 
wars  the  course  of  fate  could  no  longer  be  controlled. 

In  the  old  days,  when  the  Empress  Elizabeth  used  to 
spend  months  at  a  time  at  Cap  Martin,  and  her  husband 
came  to  visit  her  there,  Francis  Joseph  was  himself  visited 
by  Felix  Faure,  the  President  of  the  French  Republic. 
Subsequently  the  Emperor's  relations  with  France  were 
confined  to  a  few  occasional  receptions  of  the  representatives 
of  the  Republic  in  Vienna.     The  French  Ambassador,  the 

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Marquis  de  Revcrseaux  de  Rouvray,  was  always  welcomed 
by  the  Emperor,  and  his  successor,  Crozier,  raised  himself 
to  a  position  of  confidence.  During  the  annexation  crisis, 
in  1908-9,  the  Emperor  repeatedly  consulted  him,  especially 
as  he  soon  realized  that  Crozier  was  urging  the  Austrian 
point  of  view  with  emphasis  and  conviction  on  the  Paris 
government.  The  fact  that  war  was  then  avoided  is  due 
not  least  to  the  close  co-operation  between  the  Emperor  and 
Crozier  who  succeeded  in  carrying  his  point  in  Paris. 

The  Emperor  was  by  no  means  in  sympathy  with  France, 
but  he  never  let  his  dislike  and  disapproval  appear  in  the 
way.  The  Archduke  Francis  Ferdinand  did,  although  on 
the  whole  their  feelings  towards  France  were  similar.  Both 
saw  in  France's  hostility  in  the  past  the  first  cause  of  the 
decline  of  the  Hapsburg  states,  and  in  France's  present 
policy,  particularly  her  open  encouragement  of  Russia's 
ambitions  in  the  direction  of  armaments  and  expansion,  the 
chief  danger  for  the  future.  That  the  Emperor  summed  up 
the  situation  very  accurately  is  proved  by  the  following 
words  spoken  by  him  at  a  dinner  in  Godollo  in  May,  191 1  : 

"  All  our  love  of  peace  will  be  unavailing  if  France  does 
not  stop  supplying  Russia  with  money  and  everything  else 
she  wants.  France  is  the  bogey  that  threatens  the  peace  of 
Europe.  For  us  the  situation  is  the  more  ominous  as  such  a 
war  might  end  in  our  complete  ruin." 

While  I  am  on  this  subject  of  the  Emperor's  attitude  to 
France  I  should  not  omit  to  record  my  growing  conviction 
that  the  old  sovereign  was  too  much  inclined  to  regard  France 
of  the  French  Republic  and  France  under  the  Emperor 
Napoleon  III.  as  one  and  the  same  thing. 

No  one  can  be  surprised  that  Francis  Joseph  regarded 
Napoleon  III.  as  a  monstrous  portent,  if  not  a  figure  of 
horror.  Was  it  not  the  French  Emperor  who  had  enun- 
ciated the  theory  of  nationality  from  the  throne  and  then 
pierced  the  very   marrow   of  the  Danube  Monarchy  with 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

that  poisoned  arrow  ?  Was  it  not  he,  who,  under  the 
influence  of  Orsini's  bombs,  in  1859  had  begun  to  proclaim 
the  dogma  of  the  right  to  existence  of  every  composite 
national  state  at  the  cannon's  mouth  ? 

Action  of  that  kind  naturally  hit  Francis  Joseph  in  his 
most  sensitive  spot  and  he  could  never  forget  it,  particularly 
as  not  only  the  hegemony  of  the  Hapsburg  Empire  in  Central 
Europe  but  even  his  own  absolute  power  in  his  kingdom 
had  been  shaken  once  and  for  all  on  the  battlefields  of  Magenta 
and  Solferino.  The  Emperor  henceforth  considered  the 
French  ruler  as  responsible  for  these  overwhelming  and 
disastrous  blows. 

One  can  therefore  hardly  blame  Francis  Joseph  for  looking 
very  critically  at  everything  that  happened  in  France  and 
instinctively  shrinking  from  establishing  friendly  relations 
with  that  country,  even  though  on  the  whole  public  feeling 
there  was  anything  but  hostile  to  the  Danube  Monarchy. 

A  factor  which  contributed  materially  to  his  sentiments 
on  this  subject  was  the  latent  hostility  between  France  and 
Germany.  The  Emperor  considered  that  his  duty  as  an  ally 
alone  made  it  incumbent  upon  him  to  take  Germany's  side 
unreservedly  and  he  did  so  with  all  the  greater  pleasure 
when  he  remembered  the  incalculable  harm  Napoleon  III. 
had  done  him. 

The  best  proof  to  me  was  the  intense  interest  with  which 
the  old  Emperor  in  1909  followed  the  half-centenary  cele- 
brations of  the  Italian  campaign  in  all  the  papers.  He  was 
extremely  pleased  that  not  only  was  there  little  inclination 
in  France  to  make  much  of  the  occasion  but  that  even  in  Italy 
the  public  almost  ostentatiously  avoided  mentioning  the 
name  of  Napoleon  III.  It  was  during  this  time  that  the 
Emperor  remarked,  as  he  handed  me  back  a  memorial  number 
of  the  Illustrazione  Italiana  which  he  had  been  looking 
through : 

"  Thank  God,  everyone  sees  now  that  when  Napoleon  III 

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The  Emperor  Charles  and  his  Family. 


IFaeing  p.  288 


Francis  Joseph's  Foreign  Relations 

was  trying  to  undermine  our  position  he  was  only  undermining 
his  own  as  well !  " 

The  Emperor,  however,  did  not  extend  his  dislike  either 
to  the  French  ambassadors  or  the  French  military  attaches 
in  Vienna.  In  my  time  the  attaches  were  Lieutenant- 
Colonels  the  Marquis  de  Laguiche,  Girodon,  Levesque 
and  Hallier,  and  the  Emperor  put  them  on  exactly  the  same 
level  as  their  German  colleagues.  Indeed,  it  might  be  said 
that  he  singled  out  the  outstanding  figures  among  them — 
Girodon  and  Hallier — and  obviously  liked  having  them 
with  him. 

But  these  personal  relations  did  not  prevent  him  from 
connecting  France  with  his  anxieties  for  his  Empire's  future, 
for  he  was  firmly  convinced  that  she  was  a  permanent  threat 
to  the  peace  of  Europe,  and  therefore  represented  the  Danube 
Monarchy's  greatest  danger. 

I  should  like  to  mention  here  that  many  of  the  Emperor's 
remarks  justified  the  conclusion  that  he  was  firmly  convinced 
that  Austria  could  not  survive  a  war  on  several  fronts  without 
breaking  up.  Hence  his  strenuous  efforts  to  avoid  war  under 
any  circumstances,  at  whatever  sacrifice.  It  will  always 
remain  a  puzzle  why  he  changed  his  course  in  July,  19 14, 
and  suddenly  renounced  those  pacific  principles  for  which  he 
had  previously  been  severely  blamed  in  many  quarters. 

In  many  respects  the  Emperor's  relations  with  Switzer- 
land were  closer  than  those  with  France.  Here  again  his 
personal  contact  was  confined  to  the  Swiss  ministers  in 
Vienna  and  occasional  Swiss  personages  who  came  to  see  him, 
but  the  circumstance  that  Switzerland  had  a  frontier  in 
common  with  Austria-Hungary  involved  more  frequent 
intercourse.  The  Emperor  regarded  Switzerland  first  and 
foremost  as  the  mother  country  from  which  his  house  had 
sprung,  and  liked  to  refer  to  the  fact.  On  only  one  occasion 
during  my  period  of  service  with  Count  Paar  did  the  Emperor 
come  into  direct  contact   with   the   Swiss   near   their   own 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

country.  I  say  "  near "  because  the  Emperor  was  sailing 
round  Lake  Constance  on  the  31st  August,  1909,  and  did 
not  leave  the  ship  when,  after  coming  from  Lindau,  she 
anchored  at  Rorschach  off  the  Swiss  shore,  which  had  been 
decorated  for  the  occasion  in  the  gayest  manner  by  the 
Swiss.  A  huge  crowd  of  people  in  festive  garb  had  collected 
on  the  shore  and  welcomed  the  Emperor  with  loud  cheers. 
Several  bands  played  the  Austrian  National  Anthem.  In 
short,  it  was  a  fine  spectacle,  wonderfully  set  off  by  the  lofty 
mountains  rising  behind  in  the  brilliant  sunshine  like  a  fairy 
scene.  The  Emperor  was  delighted  at  this  spontaneously 
enthusiastic  reception  and,  deeply  moved,  thanked  Vice- 
President  Comtesse,  who  came  on  board  and  greeted  the 
monarch  in  eloquent  French  as  the  representative  of  the 
aged  President,  Walter  Deucher,  who  was  himself  too  ill 
to  appear. 

In  Comtesse's  suite  were  several  Swiss  notabilities,  in- 
cluding the  Chief  of  the  Confederate  General  Staff,  Colonel 
von  Sprecher-Bernegg.  With  all  these  gentlemen  the 
Emperor  conversed  for  some  time  and  was  then  presented 
with  a  large  bouquet  of  white  roses  by  Swiss  girls  who  had 
also  come  on  board,  a  compliment  at  which  he  was  both 
touched  and  pleased.  When  the  Emperor's  ship  weighed 
anchor  after  an  hour's  stay  at  Rorschach  and  put  out  towards 
Constance,  a  farewell  cheer  of  thousands  of  voices  thundered 
from  the  shore.  The  Emperor,  in  the  full-dress  uniform  of 
an  Austrian  field-marshal,  stood  on  the  bridge  at  the  salute 
and  for  a  long  time  gazed  back  at  the  Swiss  coast.  Then  he 
said  :  "  An  excellent  people  ;  it  has  really  done  me  good  to 
be  among  them." 

Our  review  of  the  Emperor's  relations  with  the  states 
of  Europe  would  be  incomplete  if  we  were  to  omit  that 
spiritual  power  with  regard  to  which  the  Emperor  held  a 
special  position  as  the  proudest  and  perhaps  the  first  Roman 
Catholic  prince — the  Papal  See. 

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Francis  Joseph  *s  Foreign  Relations 

The  outstanding  qualities  and  brilliance  with  which 
Leo  XIII.  endowed  the  Curia  were  sincerely  admired  by  the 
Emperor  Francis  Joseph.  So  long  as  Leo  XIII.  ruled  in  the 
Vatican  its  relations  with  the  court  of  Vienna  were  of  the 
closest,  especially  as  Francis  Joseph  supported  those  attempts 
to  unite  the  Roman  and  Greek  Churches  to  which  Leo 
applied  himself  so  zealously,  even  during  his  extreme 
old  age.  The  Pope  had  set  before  himself  as  his  life's  work 
he  task  of  shepherd'ng  the  eastern  communities  into  the 
fold  of  one  united,  universal  church.  And  there  was  no 
doubt  that  he  was  the  right  man  to  solve  this  very  difficult 
problem.  His  great  age  and  death  robbed  him  of  the  oppor- 
tunity of  seeing  tangible  results  of  his  endeavours.  His 
successor,  Pius  X.,  proved  himself  quite  incapable  of  con- 
tinuing the  path  along  which  Leo  XIII.  had  already  made 
great  progress.  His  failure  made  Emperor  Francis  Joseph 
often  bitterly  regret  that  he  had  used  his  influence,  the  decid- 
ing factor,  to  secure  the  election  of  the  Patriarch  of  Venice, 
Cardinal  Sarto,  for,  in  comparison  with  the  really  brilliant 
pontificate  of  Leo  XIII.,  that  of  his  successor  was  a  con- 
spicuous failure.  When,  in  July,  1903,  Leo  XIII.  closed  his 
eyes  in  death,  the  election  of  his  secretary-of-state,  the 
highly  gifted  Cardinal  RampoUa,  to  the  Apostolic  See  had 
appeared  to  be  a  foregone  conclusion. 

RampoUa  was  said  to  be  a  friend  of  France.  He  knew, 
however,  that  it  was  necessary  to  be  so.  In  France  a  religious 
struggle  had  begun  which  promised  evils  untold,  and  after 
the  election  of  Pius  X.  the  misguided  policy  of  the  Vatican 
led  to  a  complete  separation  of  Church  and  State,  a  change 
which  was  carried  out  with  no  regard  to  susceptibilities  and 
involved  the  loss  of  moral  and  material  property  worth 
millions.  These  dangers  had  been  foreseen  by  RampoUa 
who  tried  to  employ  his  statecraft  to  prevent  it.  He  failed, 
however,  for  when  the  Conclave  came  to  the  last  and  final 
vote  which  would  have  resulted  in  RampoUa's  election,  the 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

Bishop  of  Cracow,  Cardinal  Puzyna,  Kniaz  von  Kozielsko, 
in  the  name  of  the  Emperor  of  Austria  and  ApostoHc  King 
of  Hungary,  suddenly  exercised  the  veto  which  was  the 
Emperor's  legal  right.  The  result  was  the  election  of 
Cardinal  Sarto  as  Pope  Pius  X. ;  a  very  unfortunate  choice 
for  which  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  was  universally  held 
responsible.  Yet,  both  personally  and  as  Emperor,  he  was 
quite  indifferent  as  to  who  was  chosen.  In  exercising  his 
veto  against  Rampolla  he  was  merely  obliging  Germany. 
He  was  only  acting  on  Germany's  request,  for  RampoUa's 
sympathy  with  France  was  regarded  askance  in  Berlin. 

Leo  Xni.  and  his  disciple  Rampolla  would  certainly  have 
managed  to  exert  a  soothing  influence  on  the  course  of 
general  politics  during  the  stormy  times  which  soon  arose  ; 
Pius  X.  was  unequal  to  this  task.  Not  only  his  political,  but 
also  his  dogmatic  pronouncements  revealed  him  as  a  man  quite 
incapable  of  dealing  with  the  new  situation.  The  Brief  issued 
by  him  against  the  Protestants  put  Francis  Joseph  in  a  par- 
ticularly difficult  position,  especially  in  Hungary,  where  the 
publication  of  this  ill-timed  Papal  decree,  which  was  deeply 
hurtful  to  the  Calvinists,  had  to  be  forbidden  by  authority. 

These  troubles  depressed  the  Emperor  considerably  and 
gave  him  a  sense  of  responsibility  which  gradually  made  his 
relations  with  the  Vatican  less  cordial.  And  so  it  continued 
to  the  end  of  his  life.  Between  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph 
and  Pius  X.  close  co-operation  was  henceforward  impossible. 
The  result  was  that  the  Emperor's  relations  with  the  Papal 
Nuncios  at  his  court,  Talliani,  Bavona  and  Scapinelli,  became 
purely  formal  although,  of  course,  he  had  fairly  frequent 
dealings  with  them,  if  only  because  the  Papal  Nuncio  at 
the  Austrian  court  was  by  traditional  usage  the  doyen  of  the 
diplomatic  corps. 

Yet  the  Papal  Nuncio  was  regarded  in  Vienna — even  in 
leading  circles — as  the  only  mouthpiece  of  the  Pope.  What 
he   said  carried   considerable   weight,  therefore,  particularly 

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Francis  Joseph's  Foreign  Relations 

when  the  Nuncio  was  a  man  of  standing  who  added  personal 
authority  to  his  office  and  its  powers. 

In  Vienna  he  had  the  special  advantage  of  the  indirect 
support  of  the  court  ladies  and  the  highest  nobility,  parti- 
cularly as  the  Austrian  capital  was  a  more  suitable  field  for 
his  activities  than  anywhere  else  owing  to  the  fact  that 
Austria  was  a  state — perhaps  the  only  state — in  which  the 
Church  of  Rome  still  exercised  a  more  or  less  unlimited 
authority.  As  the  Curia,  however,  rightly  appreciated  the 
trend  of  the  times,  it  took  good  care  that  the  influence  of 
the  Nuncio  should  be  exerted  silently  and  inconspicuously, 
though  all  the  more  effectively. 

The  Emperor  himself  would  have  none  of  it.  He  would 
not  tolerate  any  competing  authority  and  was  not  in  the 
least  afraid  of  translating  his  wishes  into  facts  in  a  manner 
that  allowed  of  no  ambiguity.  The  Nuncio  AgliardI  had 
to  yield — somewhat  shamefacedly — to  Baron  Banffy,  the 
Hungarian  Minister-President,  and  Archbishop  Granito 
di  Belmonte,  to  the  Foreign  Minister,  Count  Aehrenthal. 
In  such  matters  the  Emperor  would  stand  no  nonsense. 

It  was  only  after  his  death  that  the  situation  changed 
to  the  advantage  of  the  Papal  See  and  its  ambitions.  The 
Nuncio  now  at  last  stepped  into  the  foreground  with  the 
result  that  at  the  court  of  the  Emperor  Charles  and  his  wife 
there  was  no  more  important  figure  than  the  Pope's  represen- 
tative. Count  Valfre  di  Bonzo. 

The  views  of  the  Bourbon  Empress  Zita  may  also  have 
been  responsible  for  the  fact  that  at  this  time — the  last  days 
of  Hapsburg  rule — the  influence  of  Romish  ecclesiasticism 
prevailed  over  all  others,  and  thus  threw  open  the  door  to 
clerical  aspirations.  Such  a  development  would  have  been 
impossible  in  the  days  of  the  old  Emperor  who  was  surely 
just  as  good  a  catholic. 

Here  I  leave  Europe  to  cast  a  glance  at  the  other  con- 
tinents, although  Francis  Joseph's  relations  with  the  rulers 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

of  these  parts  of  the  world  were  sHght  and  merely  occasional, 
a  fact  which  is  explained  by  the  consideration  that  Austria- 
Hungary  was  the  only  great  power  that  possessed  no  colonies. 

Of  African  rulers,  those  with  whom  Francis  Joseph  came 
into  contact  were  Khedive  Abbas  II.  Hilmi  of  Egypt  and 
the  Negus  of  Abyssinia.  The  former  several  times  visited 
Vienna,  where  he  was  welcomed  by  the  Emperor  and  treated 
with  great  deference.  The  latter,  in  Septembei*,  191 1,  sent 
a  large  deputation  to  the  capital,  where  it  was  received  very 
graciously  by  the  Emperor  and  its  members  were  gratified 
with  every  mark  of  distinction.  The  Emperor  was  full  of 
praise  for  the  bearing  of  this  Abyssinian  deputation,  and  was 
pleased  with  the  opportunity  its  visit  offered  to  make  the 
acquaintance  of  members  of  an  ancient  African  race. 

From  Asia  the  Shah  of  Persia,  Mozaffer-Ed-Din,  came 
to  Vienna  in  September,  1900,  and  June,  1905,  staying  on 
bo*h  occasions  at  the  Hofburg  as  the  Emperor's  guest.  It 
was  not  easy  for  Francis  Joseph  to  treat  this  typical  Asiatic 
potentate  with  the  friendliness  and  consideration  to  which 
he,  like  any  other  ruler,  was  assuredly  entitled.  It  was  there- 
fore not  altogether  without  reHef  that  during  the  Shah's 
second  visit  (1905)  he  left  for  Budapest  to  attend  the  funeral 
of  the  old  Archduke  Joseph. 

In  April,  1902,  the  Crown  Prince  of  Siam,  Maha-Wad- 
jirawudh,  came  to  Vienna.  He  also  stayed  at  the  Hofburg 
where  festivities  were  held  in  his  honour.  He  accompanied 
the  Emperor  to  the  New  Year's  review  on  the  Schmelzer 
parade  ground.  The  Emperor  was  delighted  to  see  how 
carefully  the  Prince  observed  European  customs  and  the  keen 
interest  he  took  in  everything  he  saw.  The  well-educated 
young  Prince  pleased  the  Emperor  greatly.  He  found  him 
"  delightful  and  most  charmingly  courteous." 

The  Emperor's  relations  with  Japan  were  much  closer. 
His  interest  appears  to  have  been  awakened  by  this  country's 
swift   and  portentous   military  development,   to  which  her 

294 


Francis  Joseph's  Foreign  Relations 

successes  in  arms  against  Russia  in  1904  and  1905  eloquently 
testified.  Princes  of  the  Japanese  Imperial  house  often 
came  to  Vienna  and  Budapest,  as  also  did  Japanese  high 
military  officials  and  deputations.  It  was  always  a  sincere 
pleasure  to  the  monarch  to  converse  with  his  guests.  This 
was  not  difiicult,  because  the  Japanese  of  the  higher  social 
circles,  especially  military  circles,  nearly  all  spoke  German, 
or  at  any  rate  French.  Francis  Joseph  was  also  in  frequent 
touch  with  the  Japanese  ambassadors  at  his  court — men  of 
outstanding  intellectual  gifts — and  he  never  lost  an  oppor- 
tunity of  expressing  the  high  opinion  he  held  of  their  nation. 

This  partiality  was  quite  striking  and  was  the  outcome 
of  the  Emperor's  military  views.  He  was  impressed  by  the 
victories  that  Japan's  army  and  navy  had  won  against 
Russia.  During  the  war  in  the  Far  East  he  followed  with 
the  keenest  attention  the  reports  on  Japan's  military  achieve- 
ments, from  which  he  insisted  much  should,  and  must  be 
learnt.  He  therefore  liked  Japanese  military  missions  and 
naval  officers  to  come  to  Austria  and  confer  with  Austrian 
military  and  naval  authorities.  He  thought  that  the  latter 
would  also  benefit  from  this  intercourse  and  from  the  ex- 
perience which  had  won  for  Japan  such  amazing  results. 
Whether  these  excellent  intentions  were  appreciated  as 
they  deserved  by  the  leaders  of  his  armed  forces  is  doubtful. 
That  seems  particularly  true  of  the  Austro-Hungarian 
General  Staff.  Otherwise  many  things  which  contributed 
to  the  overthrow  of  the  Hapsburg  monarchy  in  the  world 
war  would  not  have  happened. 

There  was  another  point  about  the  Japanese  which 
impressed  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph — their  capacity  for 
harmonizing  ancient  traditions,  faithfully  held  for  thousands 
of  years,  with  quite  modern  views  and  developments. 

One  of  the  Emperor's  most  attractive  characteristics  was 
the  fact  that  he  recognized  pre-eminence  in  others  and  did 
not  know  what  envy  was.     Whereas  the  Emperor  William  II., 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

for  example,  always  wanted  himself  and  his  Empire  to  have 
the  front  seat  everywhere,  or  to  force  themselves  into  it 
with  as  little  delay  as  possible,  Francis  Joseph  was  free  from 
such  jealous  feelings.  Although  throughout  his  reign  he 
could  look  back  on  no  decisive  victories,  he  acknowledged 
the  military  triumphs  of  Japan  without  bitterness  and  watched 
with  the  same  keen  interest  and  genuine  admiration  the 
vast  development  of  the  North  American  Union.  It  was 
much  to  be  regretted  that  he  never  mastered  the  English 
language,  so  that  he  lost  the  opportunity  of  direct  con- 
versation with  the  American  officials  in  Vienna,  most  of 
whom  could  not  speak  any  other  language.  The  employment 
of  interpreters  handicapped  the  Emperor,  for  it  deprived  him 
of  direct  contact  with  the  Americans. 

"  I  will  not  trouble  you  gentlemen  further.  This  is 
merely  tiresome  for  us  three.  If  only  I  could  talk  English 
there  is  lots  more  I  should  like  to  hear  from  you."  With 
these  stereotyped  courtesies  the  Emperor  would  soon  break 
off  such  conversations.  Afterwards,  however,  he  would 
eagerly  inquire  what  the  American  gentlemen  had  had  to 
say,  for  he  made  a  very  great  point  of  being  thoroughly 
informed  on  foreign  ajffairs. 

Even  in  matters  of  etiquette  the  Emperor  ranked  the 
Presidents  of  the  United  States  on  a  level  with  European 
monarchs.  This  was  made  plain  during  manoeuvres  at 
Hajmdsker  in  September,  1901,  when  news  of  the  assassination 
of  President  McKinley  reached  head-quarters  at  the 
Monastery  at  Zircz. 

The  Emperor  immediately  sent  particularly  warm  per- 
sonal telegrams  of  sympathy  to  the  first  Vice-Presidents  at 
Washington  and  the  United  States  representatives  in  Vienna, 
instructed  the  Austro-Hungarian  representatives  in  Wash- 
ington to  convey  his  condolences  to  Congress,  and  was  repre- 
sented officially  at  the  memorial  service  in  the  Anglican 
church  in  Vienna. 

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In  May,  1910,  when  Mr.  Roosevelt  visited  Vienna,  he 
was  not  only  received  in  special  audience  by  the  Emperor 
but  a  brilliant  court  banquet  was  given  in  his  honour  at 
Schonbrunn.  This  was  all  the  higher  an  honour  as  Roose- 
velt at  that  time  was  no  longer  President  but  was  visiting 
the  city  only  in  a  private  capacity.  The  fact,  however, 
that  he  had  shortly  before  been  the  highest  dignitary  in  the 
United  States  moved  the  Emperor  to  receive  him  with 
exceptional  honour. 

Roosevelt  was  not  unappreciative  of  such  honours  for 
when  I  talked  to  him  during  the  afternoon  following  the 
audience  he  was  most  enthusiastic  about  the  way  he  had 
been  received.  In  the  course  of  the  conversation  I  men- 
tioned his  hunting  expeditions  in  Africa  and  the  unique 
successes  he  had  achieved  there.  With  a  wave  of  his  hand 
Mr.  Roosevelt  remarked  with  a  warmth  that  was  obviously 
genuine  : 

"  What  is  all  that  compared  with  the  impressions  I  bring 
away  from  my  reception  by  your  Emperor.  I  would  willingly 
exchange  the  memory  of  my  lion  hunts  for  an  audience  with 
the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph.  There  is  nothing  finer  than 
the  noble,  century-old  traditions  which  he  alone  personifies." 

Roosevelt  was  the  first  visitor  to  whom  the  Emperor 
granted  permission  to  appear  at  an  audience  in  a  lounge 
suit,  and  with  a  coloured  tie — a  concession  to  Anglo-American 
customs  which  caused  no  little  comment  at  the  time  in  Vienna. 

Diplomatic  relations  with  Mexico  had  been  broken  off 
by  the  Emperor  after  the  shooting  of  his  brother  Ferdinand 
Maximilian  on  the  orders  of  President  Benito  Juarez  in 
1867.  They  were  not  resumed  until  the  year  preceding  the 
overthrow  of  President  Porfirio  Diaz,  when  the  Emperor 
honoured  the  latter  with  the  Grand  Cross  of  the  Order  of 
St.  Stephen.  Whether  this  was  a  wise  action  may  be  doubted, 
especially  as  Porfirio  Diaz  had  a  hand  in  the  tragedy  of 
Queretaro.     It   would   better   have   become   the   Emperor's 

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dignity  if  he  had  deferred  this  rafprochement  with  Mexico 
until  Porfirio  Diaz  had  ceased  to  be  the  head  of  the  state. 
In  any  case  the  step  did  not  benefit  the  Austrians  and  Hun- 
garians Hving  in  Mexico,  for  shortly  afterwards  the  country 
was  rent  by  continuous  internal  discord  which  made  any 
attempt  at  regular  intercourse  illusory. 

To  the  Mexican  charges  d'affaires  as  well  as  those  of  the 
South  American  republics,  Brazil,  the  Argentine,  Chili  and 
Peru,  the  Emperor  always  extended  the  privileges  which  were 
due  to  them  as  members  of  the  diplomatic  corps  at  the  court 
of  Vienna.  He  received  them  with  perfect  courtesy  on  all 
occasions  which  brought  them  into  contact  with  him. 

Chili  was  in  closer  touch  with  Austria  than  the  other 
South  American  republics  by  virtue  of  the  fact  that  this 
state  sent  excellent  officers  to  Vienna  for  the  benefit  of  their 
military  education.  I  might  mention  Colonel  Barros  Merino 
and,  after  him,  Colonel  Davila  Baeza,  both  of  whom  could 
boast  of  the  Emperor's  special  regard.  The  same  applied 
to  the  Argentine  military  and  naval  attaches  in  Vienna,  of 
whom  Captains  Malbrdn  and  Fliess  were  very  popular  in 
Vienna  society. 

I  have  thus  completed  my  rapid  sketch  of  the  Emperor 
Francis  Joseph's  relations  with  foreign  powers  during  the 
latter  part  of  his  life. 

In  this  department,  as  in  every  other,  the  Emperor's 
unswerving  devotion  to  duty  was  apparent.  Here  again  he 
did  not  spare  himself  in  the  interests  of  the  welfare  and  safety 
of  his  peoples. 

Whether  his  well-meant  efforts  were  successful  it  must 
be  left  to  History  to  decide.  Unfortunately  we,  his  con- 
temporaries, lived  to  witness  a  complete  breakdown  of  all 
Austria-Hungary's  foreign  alliances  with  the  exception  of 
that  with  Germany,  the  only  one  which  held  even  in  the 
hour  of  direst  need,  and  that  because  it  had  the  approval  of 
the  majority  of  the  citizens  of  both  nations. 

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The  question  naturally  rises  whether  the  Emperor  Francis 
Joseph's  attitude  to  foreign  nations  should  not  have  been 
based  on  other  principles  if  the  frightful  catastrophe  of  the 
complete  dissolution  of  his  Empire  was  to  be  avoided.  It 
must  be  left  unanswered  even  now.  For  the  moment  it  is 
enough  merely  to  refer  to  the  suggestion  I  have  made  in 
an  earlier  chapter  of  this  book — that  the  Emperor's  actions 
were  always  attended  by  the  most  obstinate  lack  of  luck. 
If  it  had  not  been  so,  his  universally  admitted  love  of  peace, 
and  his  personal  kindness  and  anxiety  to  do  everything 
possible  to  further  good  relations  with  foreign  countries, 
would  have  succeeded  in  effecting  many  changes.  Of  course 
this  is  only  on  the  assumption  that  his  self-sacrificing  en- 
deavours had  been  supplemented  by  the  efforts  of  those  who 
worked  with  him.  But  that  condition  precedent  seems  never 
to  have  been  fulfilled,  and  the  old  Emperor  was  the  first  to 
recognize  the  fact  to  his  bitter  regret.  He  resigned  himself 
to  it,  as  to  so  many  other  things,  with  fatalistic  indifference, 
and  only  occasionally  put  his  disappointment  into  words. 
When  he  did  no  one  could  have  the  slightest  doubt  that  the 
Emperor  Francis  Joseph  had  a  low  opinion  of  his  diplomats. 

On  one  occasion  the  Emperor  was  pressing  for  a  certain 
document  from  the  Foreign  Office  for  which  he  was  kept 
waiting  all  day.  When  at  last  it  arrived,  and  anyone  could 
see  that  it  could  have  been  prepared  in  a  few  hours  at  most, 
the  Emperor  shook  his  head  and  murmured :  "  Lucky 
fellows,  these  diplomats !  No  such  thing  as  hurry  for  them. 
The  ordinary  departmental  nag  is  a  racehorse  compared  with 
the  Foreign  Office  specimen !  "  But  when  Count  Paar 
suggested  that  he  should  convey  a  message  from  the  Emperor 
that  the  Foreign  Office  should  be  a  Httle  more  expeditious  in 
its  work,  the  sovereign  remarked  in  a  tone  of  resignation  : 
"  You  can  save  yourself  the  trouble  !  I've  often  tried  that 
myself  and  always  in  vain  !  " 

There  were  other  occasions  on  which  the  Emperor  revealed 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

his  despair  at  his  helplessness  in  matters  diplomatic.  At  the 
beginning  of  February,  1906,  the  Archduke  Leopold  Salvator 
represented  his  sovereign  at  the  funeral  of  King  Christian 
IX.  of  Denmark  in  Copenhagen  and  Roeskilde.  Wlien  he 
came  back,  the  Archduke  was  very  angry  and  used  very  harsh 
words  of  the  Austro-Hungarian  ambassador  in  the  Danish 
capital,  because  he  had  not  merely  given  him  no  assistance 
but  showed  himself  extremely  ill-informed  about  everything. 
This  came  to  the  ears  of  the  Emperor,  but  all  he  had  to  say 
was  this : 

"  The  Archduke  mustn't  worry.  You  can  tell  him  that 
throughout  my  long  reign  my  diplomatists  have  never  been 
well  informed.  They  have  always  asked  me  questions ! 
There's  nothing  you  can  do  to  alter  it." 

This  remark  of  the  old  Emperor,  who  was  usually  extra- 
ordinarily severe  and  hard  in  matters  in  which  there  had  been 
any  failure  of  duty — especially  where  soldiers  were  concerned 
— utterly  astonished  me.  How  could  the  Emperor  have  a 
double  standard  ?  The  phenomenon  is  partially  explained 
by  the  fact  that  the  diplomatic  service  had  more  or  less 
become  the  preserve  of  the  aristocracy,  and  the  Emperor 
was  always  peculiarly  patient  and  tolerant  towards  the 
nobility.  It  was  also  attributable  to  his  pecuhar  view  of 
the  diplomatic  service.  He  simply  regarded  it  as  nothing 
but  an  ancient  institution  which  modern  life  had  outgrown. 
He  let  it  continue  for  the  sake  of  its  representative  functions, 
but  he  had  virtually  ceased  to  attach  any  practical  importance 
to  it.  The  Emperor  was  a  man  who  preferred  working  with 
written  documents,  and  he  cannot  have  liked  having  so  little 
regard  for  diplomatic  reports,  even  those  of  the  military 
attaches.  With  his  never-failing  sense  of  duty  he  read  them 
industriously  and  carefully,  but  as  a  rule  he  passed  on  to  the 
next  item  with  a  sceptical  shrug  of  the  shoulders. 

Considering  the  actual  constitution  of  his  diplomatic 
service,  the  Emperor's  opinion  can  hardly  be  made  a  reproach 

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to  him.  But  why  did  he  not  exert  himself  to  make  any 
change  ?  Why  did  he  reconcile  himself  to  the  view — which 
ultimately  became  a  part  of  himself — that  "  diplomacy  is 
never  any  good  "  ? 

That  may  be  the  very  reason  why  it  was  "  no  good,"  even 
in  Austria-Hungary's  hour  of  fate,  and  failed  so  completely 
that  the  great  imperial  edifice  which  Francis  Joseph  had 
built  up  and  preserved  with  such  trouble,  patient  and  self- 
sacrificing  effort,  suddenly  crumbled  into  ruin. 

The  well-known  historian.  Dr.  Heinrich  Friedjung,  told 
some  of  his  friends  in  the  late  summer  of  191 9  that  notwith- 
standing all  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph's  virtues  as  a  rule — 
and  many  of  them  were  great  virtues — all  he  had  really  done 
was  to  make  the  downfall  of  the  Hapsburg  Empire  inevitable. 
The  course  which  he  had  pursued  in  domestic  affairs  as  well 
as  his  foreign  policy  was  bound  ultimately  to  bring  about 
the  collapse  of  the  Danube  Monarchy. 

"  It  is  not  a  mere  coincidence,"  continued  Dr.  Fried- 
jung, "  but  seems  to  me  highly  characteristic  of  Francis 
Joseph's  work  that  he  ushered  in  the  catastrophe  which  was 
to  overwhelm  his  Empire  with  an  ultimatum — the  ultima- 
tum to  Sardinia  on  April  23,  1859 — and  crowned  it  fifty- 
five  years  later  with  another  ultimatum — the  ultimatum 
to  Serbia  on  July  23,  1914.  That  alone  points  to  a  perpetual 
miscalculation  of  the  situation  and  above  all  an  overestimate 
of  what  the  Empire  could  do.  No  one  can  relieve  the  Emperor 
from  responsibility  for  that  mistake  ! " 

This  verdict  of  the  celebrated  historian,  perhaps  not 
inapt  at  first  sight,  but  certainly  too  severe,  misses  its  real 
mark.  It  does  not  apply  to  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph.  The 
weight  of  this  formidable  charge  falls  solely  on  Austro- 
Hungarian  diplomacy,  the  inefficiency  of  which  brought  the 
Emperor  himself  to  the  discouraging  and  often  despairing 
conclusion  that  he  could  never  count  on  his  diplomatists. 


301 


CHAPTER  X 
THE  OLD  EMPEROR  IN  THE  WORLD  WAR 

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY  gave  the  signal  for  the  great 
war  in  the  summer  of  191 4.  That  is  a  fact  which 
cannot  be  spirited  away. 

How  could  it  possibly  have  come  about  that  the 
peace-loving  old  Emperor,  of  all  men,  should  ha\e  lighted 
the  torch  that  set  the  world  in  flames  ?  Everyone  knew  for 
years  that  Francis  Joseph  had  made  the  preservation  of  peace 
at  any  price  his  holiest  duty,  and  that  to  fulfil  it  he  had  used 
all  the  resources  at  his  command,  including  the  full  weight 
of  his  personal  authority.  He  had  given  patent  proof  of  his 
intentions  by  his  actions  in  1908-9  and  1912-13,  when  the  waves 
of  poHtical  excitement  ran  high.  To  him  the  world  unques- 
tionably owes  the  fact  that  at  those  two  highly  critical 
moments  the  great  powers  did  not  fly  at  one  another's 
throats,  and  it  was  saved  that  deluge  of  blood  which  Francis 
Joseph  could  postpone,  but  not  avert  for  ever. 

It  was  Francis  Joseph,  too,  who  for  a  full  decade  had 
firmly  rejected  all  the  insinuations  of  the  Chief  of  the 
General  Staff,  von  Conrad-Hotzendorf,  who  believed  that 
the  only  guarantee  of  Austria-Hungary's  future  existence 
was  an  attack  on  her  dangerous  or  unfriendly  neighbours 
at  her  own  selected  moment.  That  officer  had  hardlv  been 
appointed  to  his  high  post  in  the  autumn  of  1906  before  he 
began  to  pester  his  sovereign  with  a  series  of  memoranda 
in  which  he  gave  reasons  innumerable  for  the  view  that  the 
monarchy  was  not  equal  to  simultaneous  wars  with  Italy, 

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The  Old  Emperor  in  the  World  War 

Serbia,  Montenegro  and  Russia,  and  must  therefore  snatch 
the  first  favourable  moment  of  dealing  with  her  prospective 
enemies  one  by  one. 

Conrad  summed  up  his  proposals  in  the  words  "  preven- 
tive war,"  by  which  he  meant  that  he  advocated  a  war  "  on 
our  own  initiative,"  and  begun  under  favourable  auspices. 
In  that  way  only  would  it  be  possible  for  the  monarchy  to 
avoid  having  a  war  forced  upon  her  at  her  enemies'  selected 
moment. 

In  these  views  Conrad  was  in  direct  opposition  to  Count 
Aehrenthal,  the  then  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs,  who  adhered 
unswervingly  to  that  traditional  peace  policy  of  the  Haps- 
burg  Empire  which  Conrad  was  absolutely  bent  on  infecting 
with  a  militaristic,  or  rather  imperialistic  virus.  The  latter 
was  no  doubt  inspired  by  patriotic  motives,  though  an 
element  of  personal  ambition  made  its  presence  felt. 

Be  that  as  it  may,  in  this  conflict  of  wills  the  Emperor 
always  took  Aehrenthal's  part,  so  much  so,  that  he  finally 
got  rid  of  Conrad  in  the  autumn  of  191 1,  when  he  produced 
another  memorandum  to  the  effect  that  war  must  be 
declared  on  Italy,  which  at  that  moment  had  her  hands  full 
in  Tripoli.  Aehrenthal  would  hear  nothing  of  such  a  policy 
of  "  brigandage  "  and  the  Emperor  supported  him. 

The  Emperor  deserves  all  the  more  credit  for  this  example 
of  his  determination  to  keep  the  peace  because  his  heir,  the 
Archduke  Francis  Ferdinand,  was  hand  in  glove  with  Conrad 
and  regarded  the  latter's  dismissal  as  neither  more  nor  less 
than  a  personal  insult. 

Could  not  Francis  Joseph  have  proved  himself  the 
"  Peace  Emperor  "  once  more  in  1914  ?  Were  his  powers 
of  resistance  to  the  war-party  already  worn  down,  or  were 
there  special  reasons  which  even  he  regarded  as  unansw  erable  ? 
Are  we  bound  to  assume  that  in  1914  his  unswerving  deter- 
mination to  keep  the  peace  was  a  thing  of  the  past,  or  that  it 
failed  in  the  face  of  considerations  that  seemed  imperative  I 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

There  is  an  element  of  inherent  improbability  in  the 
latter  alternative,  if  only  because  Francis  Joseph's  actions 
for  nearly  half  a  century  cry  out  against  it.  Those  in  a 
position  to  know  have  always  been  positive  that  the  old 
Emperor  did  not  want  the  war.  The  whole  court  was 
convinced  of  the  fact. 

Count  Paar,  for  instance,  told  me  in  the  critical  days 
that  the  Emperor  was  horrified  at  the  outbreak  of  the  war. 
When  I  put  the  obvious  question  as  to  why,  if  that  were  so, 
he  had  not  prevented  it,  Paar  was  at  a  loss  to  find  any 
enlightening  reply,  and  proceeded  to  blame  Count  Berchtold, 
the  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs.  At  a  later  date,  however, 
Paar  was  anxious  to  relieve  Berchtold  of  the  entire  burden 
of  responsibility  and  transferred  it  to  the  shoulders  of  his 
colleagues  in  the  Ministry,  Counts  Forgach  and  Hoyos,  the 
ambassadors  von  Musulin  and  Wiesner,  the  joint  Finance 
Minister,  Baron  von  Bilinski,  and  last,  but  not  least,  von 
Conrad  Hotzendorf. 

As  I  am  anxious  to  give  no  grounds  for  misunderstanding 
I  must  insist  that  in  this  book  nothing  is  further  from  my 
intentions  than  to  discuss  the  real  causes  of  the  war,  direct 
and  immediate  or  indirect  and  ultimate.  I  am  of  course 
familiar  with  many  of  the  relevant  documents  and  I  have  read, 
at  any  rate  partially,  the  different  White,  Red,  Yellow,  etc., 
Books  published  by  the  various  Foreign  Offices. 

Yet  to  deal  with,  or  even  refer  to  these  seems  to  me  cer- 
tainly no  part  of  my  task,  if  only  because  my  book,  which 
is  sufficiently  described  by  its  title,  is  a  volume  of  "  personal 
reminiscences  "  only.  What  Count  Paar  said  in  the  critical 
days  must  therefore  be  considered  from  that  point  of  view 
alone. 

Count  Paar's  words  were  echoed  by  nearly  everyone  in 
the  Emperor's  immediate  entourage. 

The  same  view  was  expressed  to  me  on  several  occasions 
by   Frau   Schratt,  who  based  it  on   direct  remarks  of  the 

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The  Old  Emperor  in  the  World  War 

Emperor  himself.  She  was  emphatic  that  the  Kaiser  was 
absolutely  opposed  to  any  war  and  would  never  have  started 
one,  or  even  dreamed  of  an  ultimatum  if  Germany,  or  Herr 
von  Tschirschky,*  had  not  urged  that  course. 

The  Emperor  had  expressly  declared  that  Germany  had 
categorically  demanded  that  the  ultimatum  to  Serbia  should 
be  couched  in  the  sharp  terms  which  ultimately  brought 
about  the  war.  According  to  Frau  Schratt,  the  German 
scheme,  which  made  compromise  impossible,  had  prominent 
supporters  even  in  Vienna.  At  their  head  was  the  all  power- 
ful Prince  Montenuovo,  the  Court  Chamberlain.  He  and 
those  of  like  mind  with  him  were  ultimately  successful  in 
gradually  overcoming  the  Emperor's  ingrained  love  of  peace. 
On  the  other  side  is  the  fact  that  Count  Berchtold  has 
himself  publicly  declared  that  Germany  was  only  informed 
of  the  contents  of  the  ominous  ultimatum  after  it  had  been 
dispatched,  the  reason  being  that  on  the  German  side  the 
Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs  had  from  the  outset  been  given 
full  freedom  of  action  against  Serbia.  This  declaration 
simply  made  Frau  Schratt  smile  and  shrug  her  shoulders. 
She  said  she  knew  better.  The  Emperor  had  told  her,  not 
once  but  many  times,  that  he  absolutely  and  utterly  dis- 
agreed with  the  ultimatum  and  only  allowed  it  to  be  sent  to 
appease  Germany.     She  was  immovable  on  this  point. 

Yet  Frau  Schratt  had  evidently  fallen  into  a  great  and 
serious  error,  especially  in  so  far  as  her  judgment  of  Prince 
Montenuovo's  attitude  was  concerned.  The  fact  is  that 
after  the  funeral  of  the  Archduke  Francis  Ferdinand  and  the 
Duchess  of  Hohenberg,  the  Grand  Chamberlain  did  not 
go  from  Vienna  to  Ischl,  but  hastened  to  Karlsbad,  where 
his  only  son  was  lying  dangerously  ill.  He  took  him  back 
to  a  sanatorium  in  Vienna  where  the  Prince  had  to  undergo 
a  critical  operation,  and  his  father  never  left  his  bedside 
throughout  the  anxious  period  of  his  convalescence. 

*  German  Ambassador  in  Vienna. — [Tr.] 

305  20 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

Prince  Montenuovo  only  heard  of  the  rejection  of  the 
ultimatum  by  Serbia  from  the  newspapers.  His  well- 
known  and  unfailing  sense  of  duty  then  made  him  leave  his 
son,  who  was  still  very  ill,  and  go  to  Ischl  himself.  He 
reached  Ischl  after  the  mobilization  decree  had  been  issued, 
and  therefore  at  a  time  when  the  die  had  been  cast  once 
and  for  all.  It  is  well  known  that  the  Emperor  never  carried 
on  a  private  correspondence  with  anyone  except  his  nearest 
relations.  He  did  not  write  to  his  Grand  Chamberlain, 
and  considering  that  the  latter  was  therefore  entirely  out 
of  touch  with  his  sovereign  at  the  critical  moment,  it  is 
impossible  to  imagine  how  the  Prince  could  have  managed 
to  overcome  the  Emperor's  pacific  sentiments  and  persuade 
him  to  declare  war,  even  if  he  felt  any  inclination  to  inter- 
vene in  a  matter  quite  outside  his  province,  a  course  which 
undoubtedly  never  occurred  to  him. 

The  truth  is  that  Prince  Montenuovo — as  I  know  only 
too  well — has  always  cherished  a  feeling  of  the  deepest 
satisfaction  that  owing  to  his  absence  from  Ischl  he  was 
never  in  a  position  even  to  drop  a  casual  remark  which  might 
have  revealed  his  views  on  the  situation. 

On  this  point,  therefore,  Frau  Schratt  was  unquestionably 
ill-informed. 

I  have  only  given  these  examples  because  they,  and 
many  others  of  which  I  heard  and  no  doubt  shall  hear,  prove 
how  widespread  and  intense  was  the  belief  in  the  Emperor 
Francis  Joseph's  love  of  peace.  Yet  it  failed  at  the  critical 
moment !  Does  it  mean  that  the  old  sovereign  no  longer 
possessed  the  physical  or  moral  strength  to  get  his  own 
way  ? 

Thati  too,  is  incredible,  because  Francis  Joseph's  personal 
prestige  was  so  great  in  the  eyes  of  his  allies,  as  well  as 
his  advisers,  that  they  could  hardly  have  resisted  a  direct 
intimation  of  his  wishes  in  the  matter. 

Then  was   there  some  special  reason    in    1914  for   the 

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The  Old  Emperor  in  the  World  War 

departure  from  the  traditional  peace  policy  ?     And  was  that 
reason  primarily  the  double  crime  of  Sarajevo  on  June  28  ? 

Anyone  who  knows  how  high  the  Emperor  set  the 
interests  and  dignity  of  his  family  and  house,  and  how  sensi- 
tive he  always  was  to  attacks  upon  him — indirect  as  much  as 
direct — may  perhaps  realize  that  the  violent  end  of  the  Arch- 
duke Francis  Ferdinand  and  his  wife  may  have  seemed  to 
the  Emperor  sufficient  justification  for  an  appeal  to  the 
sword  against  the  country  from  which  led  the  threads  of  the 
monstrous  crime. 

But  in  view  of  what  I  personally  know  and  heard,  this 
theory  is  no  more  adequate  than  the  others.  Late  in  the 
evening  of  June  28,  1914,  when  several  accounts  of  the  tragic 
event,  including  a  special  telegram  from  Marshal  Potiorek, 
the  Governor  of  Bosnia,  had  reached  Ischl,  I  discussed  the 
matter  with  Count  Paar,  concluding  with  the  question  : 

"  Surely  the  Emperor  thinks  that  to-day's  crime  may 
have  political  consequences  ?  " 

"  Not  at  all,"  replied  Count  Paar  in  a  decided  and  con- 
vincing tone.  "  Why  on  earth  should  it  ?  He'd  certainly 
have  said  something  to  that  effect  when  I  gave  him  Potiorek's 
telegram.  This  is  just  another  of  those  tragic  occurrences 
which  have  been  so  frequent  in  the  Emperor's  life.  I  don't 
think  he  regards  it  in  any  other  light." 

General  Baron  von  Bolfras,  the  Chief  of  the  Military 
Cabinet,  also  told  me  that  the  idea  of  a  possible  war  had  not 
even  occurred  to  Francis  Joseph  when  he  had  the  first  news 
of  the  assassination  from  Sarajevo. 

No,  the  notion  that  the  crime  was  a  casus  belli  came 
later,  and  was  to  a  certain  extent  the  product  of  subsequent 
influences. 

After  the  funeral  ceremonies  of  the  Archduke  and  Arch- 
duchess in  Vienna,  the  Emperor  and  his  small  suite  returned 
on  July  7th  to  Ischl,  and,  to  outward  oceming,  at  any  rate, 
life  resumed  its  normal  course. 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

But  immediately  after  our  arrival  there  news  began  to 
come  in  that  the  authorities  were  on  the  track  of  a  great 
plot,  the  threads  of  which  had  been  spun  in  Serbia  after  the 
annexation  of  Bosnia  in  1908  and  gradually  formed  a  narrow- 
meshed  net  into  which  the  heir  and  his  wife  had  blindly 
fallen.  On  July  7th  a  cabinet  council  had  been  held  in  Vienna 
and  it  was  decided  that  the  crime  of  June  28th  must  be  treated 
as  it  deserved — by  the  methods  of  diplomacy  first — as  the 
monarchy  could  no  longer  tolerate  further  threats.  There 
had  been  no  lack  of  anger  with  Serbia  at  this  cabinet  council, 
and  it  was  wholly  and  solely  due  to  the  conciliatory  interven- 
tion of  Count  Tisza,  the  Hungarian  Minister-President,  who 
advised  caution,  that  war  was  not  declared  on  Serbia  at  once. 
The  guilt  of  the  crime  of  June  28th  was  now  laid  to  the 
exclusive  charge  of  the  Belgrade  Government. 

But  I  was  not  entirely  convinced  by  this  one-sided  view, 
for  it  has  now  been  clearly  proved  that  the  measures  taken 
to  protect  the  Archduke  and  his  wife  during  their  visit  to 
Sarajevo  were  neither  more  nor  less  than  illusory.  If  those 
measures  had  not  failed  so  utterly  that  their  inadequacy 
mocks  description,  it  is  highly  probable  that  the  fateful 
drama  would  never  have  taken  place.  If  the  right  course 
had  been  taken  the  trial  of  the  assassin,  who  had  been 
caught  in  the  act,  should  have  taken  place  at  once  as 
usual. 

The  failure  to  take  such  action  proved  a  gross  error. 
The  really  remarkable  thing  is  that  at  court  no  one  dared 
say  very  much  about  Sarajevo.  Personal  considerations 
counted  for  too  much,  a  fact  which  seemed  to  me  highly 
regrettable,  especially  in  such  a  case. 

In  this  connection  I  should  mention  the  hardly  less 
striking  fact  that  no  changes  of  personnel  were  made  in  the 
highest  posts  of  Bosnia-Herzegovinian  administration.  It 
would  have  been  advisable  at  any  rate  to  consider  certain 
changes,  not  merely  for  obvious  reasons  of  dynastic  prestige, 

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The  Old  Emperor  in  the  World  War 

but  particularly  with  an  eye  to  public  opinion  in  the  monarchy 
and  subsequently  in  Europe. 

On  the  Emperor's  return  from  Ischl  to  Vienna,  imme- 
diately after  the  Sarajevo  tragedy,  I  discussed  with  Prince 
Montenuovo  the  necessity  for  Marshal  Potiorek's  immediate 
dismissal  from  his  post,  as  the  Archduke  Francis  Ferdinand 
and  the  Duchess  of  Hohenberg  had  been  assassinated  under 
his  very  eyes.  In  general,  Prince  Montenuovo  shared  my 
view,  but  he  thought  it  would  be  advisable  to  wait  for 
Potiorek  himself  to  ask  for  permission  to  resign.  As  a  matter 
of  fact  Potiorek  never  looked  like  wishing  to  resign  his  post. 
He  ought  to  have  been  dismissed  at  once,  and  with  him  his 
Chief  of  Staff  and  the  departmental  heads  of  the  provincial 
government,  as  well  as  the  local  authorities  responsible  for 
the  police  service  in  Sarajevo. 

With  that  in  mind,  I  casually  spoke  to  the  Chief  of  the 
Military  Cabinet  shortly  after,  but  he  abruptly  interrupted 
with  the  remark  that  Marshal  Potiorek  was  indispensable  at 
Sarajevo 'and  his  services  must  be  retained  there  at  any  price. 

This  conviction  was  thus  one  of  the  reasons  why  Vienna 
and  Budapest,  as  if  fascinated,  could  not  keep  their  eyes 
off  Serbia.  Yet,  in  view  of  our  international  position,  we 
ought  to  have  started  by  clearing  things  up  at  home.  If 
we  had  done  so  we  should  have  been  in  a  position  to  turn 
against  Serbia  on  the  ground  of  proof  positive  and  to  demand 
from  her  effective  guarantees  against  the  continuance  of  the 
revolutionary  activities  on  her  soil. 

Three  weeks  had  passed  since  the  Sarajevo  crime,  when, 
after  the  morning  report  on  Monday,  July  20,  Count  Paar 
handed  me  a  sheet  of  paper  containing  notes  in  his  clear 
handwriting.  He  asked  me  to  read  them  through  at  my 
leisure,  saying  they  were  headings  from  the  draft  of  an 
ultimatum  which  was  to  be  handed  to  the  Belgrade  Govern- 
ment at  once. 

Of  course  I  had  known  of  the  intention  to  send  an  ulti- 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

matum,  but  had  not  been  particularly  disconcerted,  as  I 
assumed  that,  as  so  often  before,  matters  would  take  the 
usual  course  of  the  more  or  less  platonic  exchange  of  notes. 
But  this  time,  as  I  began  to  read  Paar's  notes,  I  knew  at  once 
— and  so  did  everyone  else  who  saw  the  contents  of  the 
document — that  far  more  was  meant  this  time.  When  I 
had  finished,  I  handed  the  paper  back  to  Paar  and  at  first  I 
was  so  surprised — thunderstruck,  if  you  will — that  I  could  not 
utter  a  word.     A  few  seconds  passed  before  I  said  : 

*'  That  means  war  !  " 

At  this  remark  Count  Paar  was  simply  beside  himself. 
In  this  diplomatic  document  he  could  see  only  a  replica 
of  those  which  had  been  exchanged  in  1908-9  and  191 2- 13, 
perhaps  with  the  single  difference  that  our  vigorous  language 
aimed  at  compelling  the  Serbs  to  turn  over  a  new  leaf  once 
and  for  all.  He  also  considered  it  perfectly  proper  that  our 
political  action  was  not  accompanied  by  any  military  measures, 
as  such  precautions,  besides  being  superfluous,  would  only 
have  involved  us  in  unnecessary  expenditure. 

I  was  quite  unconvinced  by  what  he  said,  for  my  mind 
went  back  to  another  ultimatum — that  ultimatum  of  the 
23rd  April,  1859,  with  three  days  for  reply,  which  we  had 
presented  to  Piedmont.  Speaking  of  it  subsequently,  Moltke 
remarked  that  it  had  been  a  colossal  error,  because  a  note 
with  so  sharp  a  tone  and  so  short  an  interval  should  only  be 
Sent  when  the  army  is  in  a  condition  to  take  the  field  at  once, 
in  accordance  with  the  principle  that  policy  and  strategy 
should  always  go  hand  in  hand. 

In  both  cases  the  idea  of  mobilization  had  not  even 
occurred  to  us  !  The  ultimatum  was  neither  more  nor  less 
than  a  paper  threat  without  any  effective  backing.  Before 
the  Emperor's  consent  was  obtained  he  had  to  be  told  over 
and  over  again  that  the  ultimatum  was  bound  to  be  effective 
and  involved  no  danger. 

It  is  true  that  sixty-four  years  earlier  Austria  had,  by  this 

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The  Old  Emperor  in  the  World  War 

means,  obtained  a  dazzling,  though  temporary,  success  over 
Prussia.  Perhaps  the  authorities  believed  history  would 
repeat  itself.  But  Olmiitz  was  followed  by  Koniggratz. 
Was  there  no  ground  for  fearing  a  similar  experience  ? 

I  put  these  thoughts  into  frank  words  in  my  talt  with 
Count  Paar  on  that  memorable  20th  July. 

Next  morning  he  asked  me  whether  I  was  still  as  pessi- 
mistic. He  certainly  considered  the  situation  serious,  but 
nothing  like  as  critical  as  I  thought  it.  In  any  case,  Serbia's 
challenge  must  be  taken  up. 

I  merely  asked  Count  Paar  what  was  the  Chief  of  the 
General  Staff's  attitude  in  the  matter. 

"  As  far  as  I  know,"  replied  Paar,  "  General  Conrad 
has  said  that  our  military  situation  would  only  get  worse 
in  the  next  few  years." 

"  What  do  our  allies  say  ?  "  I  asked. 

"  We'd  better  leave  them  out  of  account  for  the  time 
being,"  said  Paar.  "  Germany  knows  of  our  intentions  and 
seems  to  approve  them  unreservedly.  Italy  never  asked  our 
opinion  when  she  attacked  Turkey  for  the  sake  of 
Tripoli." 

I  did  not  accept  Count  Paar's  logic  and  emphatically 
repeated  my  doubts  whether  Serbia  would  accept  the  ulti- 
matum. Paar,  however,  fully  shared  the  view  of  leading 
circles  in  Vienna,  that  this  time,  as  Belgrade  had  made 
assassination  a  tool  of  policy,  it  would  find  itself  without  a 
single  ally  and,  therefore,  be  in  no  position  to  reject  the 
ultimatum. 

Paar  was  no  longer  quite  so  cavalier  with  my  objections, 
and  ended  up  by  strongly  advocating  that  before  any  further 
steps  were  taken.  Count  Berchtold  should  obtain  the  approval 
of  a  committee  of  the  Delegations.  Unfortunately,  all  efforts 
in  that  direction  failed,  and  early  in  the  morning  of  Thursday, 
July  23,  I  heard  that  at  six  in  the  evening  of  that  day  the 
Austro-Hungarian   ultimatum,  with    forty-eight    hours    for 

3" 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

reply,  was  to  be  handed  to  the  Serbian  authorities  in  Bel- 
grade.    The  die  had  fallen  ! 

That  day  and  the  next  passed  without  any  event  of  note. 
No  answer  came  from  Belgrade  on  July  24,  or  the  morning 
of  Saturday,  the  25th. 

Serbia  was  taking  her  time.  The  reason  was  perfectly 
clear  to  me.  She  was  asking  her  friends  and  patrons,  par- 
ticularly Russia,  for  instructions.  That  "  localization  of  the 
conflict  "  which  the  Emperor's  entourage,  and  even  Count 
Berchtold  himself  expected,  was  therefore  anything  but 
a  certainty. 

On  that  Saturday  the  Duke  of  Cumberland  and  his  family 
from  Gmunden  were  expected  for  dinner  with  the  Emperor. 

In  the  morning  I  received  a  note  in  the  Emperor's  own 
handwriting,  prescribing  the  dress  to  be  worn  by  the  waiting 
staff  that  night.  It  was  a  proof  that  the  old  sovereign  over- 
looked no  detail  of  court  service  even  in  the  most  critical  times, 
and  at  the  same  time  I  could  not  resist  an  agreeable  im- 
pression that  if  the  Emperor  could  think  of  such  trivial  details 
it  was  impossible  that  he  could  be  harbouring  evil  presenti- 
ments or  a  feeling  that  serious  events  were  absolutely  im- 
minent. These  casual  instructions  on  25th  July,  1914, 
seemed  to  me  positively  a  good  omen. 

I  went  to  the  Emperor's  villa  shortly  after  two  o'clock. 
About  2.45  the  whole  of  the  Emperor's  suite  was  assembled 
and  almost  at  once  the  Emperor  himself  appeared,  coming 
from  the  park. 

Instead  of  taking  the  usual  course  of  immediately  entering 
the  hall  and  exchanging  a  few  words  with  everyone  present, 
the  sovereign  stood  in  the  open  doorway,  gave  us  a  silent 
and  quite  casual  greeting,  and  then  passed  swiftly  through 
the  hall  and  began  to  walk  feverishly  up  and  down  the  terrace 
with  his  hands  behind  his  back.  It  was  only  too  plain  that 
the  Emperor  was  in  such  a  state  of  excitement  and  distress 
that  he  could  hardly  keep  himself  under  control. 

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The  Old  Emperor  in  the  World  War 

It  was  only  when  the  Duke  of  Cumberland's  family 
drove  up  that  he  pulled  himself  together,  walked  to  the 
carriages  in  his  usual  courtly  way,  welcomed  his  guests  and 
led  them  to  the  dining-room.     We  all  followed. 

During  the  meal  I  could  watch  the  Emperor  very  closely 
from  where  I  was  sitting.  It  was  quite  easy  to  see  how  utterly 
absent-minded  he  was,  and  how  difficult  he  found  it  to  con- 
centrate sufficiently  to  keep  some  sort  of  conversation  with 
his  neighbours  going  and  try  to  perform  his  duties  as  host. 

As  if  by  common  consent  the  Serbian  business  was  not 
90  much  as  mentioned  during  the  whole  meal. 

After  lunch  we  adjourned  for  a  few  minutes  to  the  terrace 
and  smoked  while  the  Emperor  and  his  royal  guests  went 
round  chatting  with  the  company  for  a  short  time.  By  four 
o'clock  the  party  had  dispersed. 

I  went  straight  back  to  my  office.  On  my  way  there 
I  observed  a  considerable  crowd  which  had  collected  at  the 
entrance  to  the  park  and  even  in  the  Ebenseer  Strasse.  At 
first  I  thought  this  assemblage  was  in  honour  of  the  guests 
from  Gmunden.  But  when  I  made  my  way  through  the 
crowd  I  was  assailed  on  all  sides  with  the  question  whether 
any  answer  had  yet  come  from  Belgrade.  Unfortunately  I 
could  only  reply  in  the  negative. 

When  I  reached  the  office,  I  decided  I  wouldn't  leave  it 
again  until  I  received  more  definite  news  from  Vienna. 

Just  after  half-past  five  my  door  opened  and  Count  Berch- 
told  came  in  with  one  of  his  officials.  He  gave  me  a  nod  and 
asked  whether  we  also  had  had  no  news  from  Belgrade. 
I  said  no,  but  pointed  out  that  the  War  Minister's  aide-de- 
camp had  given  us  an  assurance  that  any  message  reaching 
Vienna  would  be  delivered  to  me  by  telephone  at  once. 
I  asked  the  Count  and  his  companion  to  sit  down.  They  did 
so,  and  Berchtold  said  he  preferred  to  wait  with  me. 
It  was  just  about  twenty  minutes  to  six. 
At  six  o'clock  Serbia's  time  for  reply  expired. 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

The  Minister  looked  obviously  exhausted  and  depressed. 
He  hardly  said  a  word.  I  handed  him  the  morning  paper, 
which  had  just  come  in  with  the  post.  He  thanked  me  and 
said  I  must  not  allow  his  presence  to  disturb  me  in  my  work 
at  all.     It  was  quite  plain  that  he  didn't  want  to  talk. 

The  uncanny  silence  in  the  room  was  only  broken  by  the 
monotonous  tick  of  the  clock  on  the  wall.  It  struck  quarter 
to  six,  six,  quarter  past  six.  Each  of  these  quarters  of  an 
hour  seemed  an  eternity. 

Berchtold  then  rose,  beckoned  to  his  companion,  and 
said  : 

"  We  shan't  hear  anything  to-day  now.  Let's  take  a 
short  walk."  He  shook  hands  with  me.  "  If  I'm  wanted 
I  shall  be  found  at  the  hotel."     Both  gentlemen  went  out. 

Hardly  ten  minutes  later  the  telephone  bell  rang.  I 
was  called  up  from  Vienna  by  the  War  Minister's  aide-de-camp 
on  urgent  business. 

The  hour  of  decision  was  at  hand.  My  heart  beat  furi- 
ously as  I  put  my  ear  to  the  receiver  and  caught  the  following 
words  : 

"  Following  message  has  just  been  telephoned  from  Semlin 
through  Budapest  :  '  'Just  before  6  o'clock  the  Serbian  re-ply 
to  our  ultimatum  was  handed  to  our  Minister  in  Belgrade, 
The  Minister  considers  it  unacceptable  and  has  immediately 
left  Belgrade  with  his  suite.^  " 

A  sharp  "  No  "  came  in  reply  to  my  question  whether 
any  details  of  the  Serbian  note  were  known. 

I  rang  off  and  called  up  the  Hotel  Bauer,  where  Count 
Berchtold  was  staying.  I  was  told  that  the  Minister  had 
not  yet  returned. 

What  was  I  to  do.  I  did  not  waste  much  time  in  re- 
flection. The  Emperor's  agitation  at  luncheon  was  still 
before  my  eyes.  It  seemed  to  me  obvious  I  ought  to  go  to 
him  at  once.  In  accordance  with  my  custom,  I  quickly  wrote 
down   what  the  War  Minister's  aide-de-camp  had  told  me, 

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The  Old  Emperor  in  the  World  War 

ran  down  the  stairs  and  was  about  to  forge  my  way  through 
the  crowd  still  waiting  at  the  park  gates,  when  I  caught  sight 
of  a  car.  The  chauffeur  was  an  utter  stranger,  but  I  ordered 
him  to  drive  to  the  imperial  villa  at  once.  The  tone  of  my 
voice  made  all  thought  of  refusal  impossible.  The  chauffeur 
was  quite  taken  aback  at  first,  but  he  obeyed  unquestioningly. 

I  was  at  the  villa  in  a  trice.  The  gentleman-in-waiting 
on  duty  at  once  reported  my  presence  to  the  Emperor  and 
I  stepped  into  his  cabinet. 

The  Emperor  came  forward  with  a  questioning  glance. 
I  gave  him  the  news  I  had  just  received  from  Vienna.  He 
listened  with  his  eyes  fixed  on  me  and  his  features  rigid. 
Then,  in  a  thick,  choking  voice  which  could  hardly  struggle 
through  his  throat,  a  voice  quite  unknown  to  me,  he  said  : 

"  So  it  is  /  " 

I  handed  the  Emperor  the  paper  on  which  I  had  written 
the  sinister  message.  The  Emperor  took  it,  turned  to  his 
desk  with  tired,  tottering  steps,  dropped  heavily  into  his 
chair  and  reached  for  his  glasses  which  were  lying  on  the 
writing-pad.  His  hands  trembled  so  violently  that  it  was 
some  time  before  he  could  fix  his  glasses.  When  he  had  done 
so  he  slowly  read  the  words  which  I  had  already  given  him 
orally. 

Then  he  put  the  note  down  and  sat  silent  for  a  long  time, 
lost  in  thought.  All  at  once,  probably  involuntarily,  he 
raised  his  arm  in  a  kind  of  defensive  movement.  In  so  doing 
the  ring  on  his  right  hand  caught  a  glass  tray  on  which  there 
were  pens  and  pencils,  and  there  was  a  harsh,  discordant 
sound.  The  Emperor  started.  So  did  I.  It  may  sound 
far-fetched,  but  that  screech  which  broke  the  silence  and 
sounded  as  if  something  had  burst  or  been  smashed  will 
ring  in  my  ears  for  ever. 

The  Emperor  then  re-read  the  note  with  the  news  from 
Belgrade,  and  finally  remarked,  as  if  talking  to  himself,  but 
quite  audibly  : 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

"  Even  if  diplomatic  relations  are  broken  off  it  doesn't 
necessarily  mean  war." 

So  even  at  that  hour  the  Emperor  was  evidently  hopeful 
that  the  war  could  still  be  avoided.  He  recovered  his  com- 
posure to  a  certain  extent,  for  when  he  took  off  his  glasses 
his  hands  trembled  less  than  before.  I  noticed  that  par- 
ticularly. 

A  breathless  silence  followed.  It  seemed  to  me  un- 
ending, though  it  cannot  have  been  more  than  a  minute. 
The  Emperor  rose  from  his  chair  and  said  in  a  sharp  tone, 
which  was  usually  quite  foreign  to  him  : 

"  The  Foreign  Minister  must  come  to  me  at  once.  At 
once  !  " 

I  bowed  and  turned  to  the  door.  As  I  pressed  the  handle 
the  Emperor  nodded  and  said  in  his  usual  friendly  and 
natural  way  : 

"  Adieu,  and  many  thanks  for  coming  at  once  yourself  !  " 

At  this  time  of  day  I  have  only  a  dim  memory  of  what 
subsequently  occurred  on  that  day  ;  how  I  conveyed  the 
Emperor's  orders  to  Count  Berchtold  and  told  Count  Paar 
and  others  the  news  from  Belgrade.  But  I  shall  never  forget 
a  single  detail  of  the  memorable  moments  I  spent  in  the 
Emperor's  cabinet  in  the  late  afternoon  of  25th  July,  1914. 
In  accordance  with  my  practice  I  wrote  down  the  few  words 
he  uttered  immediately  afterwards.  Those  words,  and  still 
more  the  impression,  my  sovereign's  whole  behaviour  made 
upon  me  told  me  then,  as  they  tell  me  now,  that  nothing  was 
further  from  his  mind  than  to  release  the  dogs  of  war  and, 
indeed,  that  he  found  comfort  in  the  thought  that  even  if 
diplomatic  relations  had  been  broken  off  it  did  not  necessarily 
mean  war. 

Such  was  the  course  of  events  from  the  double  crime  at 
Sarajevo  on  the  28th  June  to  the  break  with  Serbia  on  the 
25th  July.  What  was  the  course  of  events  between  the  break 
with  Serbia  and  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph's  proclamation  \ 

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The  Old  Emperor  in  the  World  War 

What  happened  in  the  days  immediately  following  the  25th 
July  which  broke  the  old  monarch's  consistent  determination 
to  maintain  peace  ? 

In  my  opinion  the  best  answer  to  this  momentous  ques- 
tion is  contained  in  an  extract  from  a  letter  which  Prince 
Montenuovo  wrote  to  me  later  : 

"  In  July,  1 91 4,  the  Emperor  decided  in  favour  of  war, 
and  his  decision  was  based  on  the  existing  situation.  He 
certainly  had  to  force  that  decision  out  of  his  high  sense  of 
duty  after  the  most  careful  consideration  of  all  the  alterna- 
tives, and  in  the  fulfilment  of  those  peremptory  obligations 
imposed  upon  him  by  his  high  position — obligations  he  had 
never  found  easy  or  simple.  The  suggestion  that  the  Emperor 
was  driven  to  that  decision  by  backstairs  influences  is  as  in- 
sulting to  him  as  the  fiction  that  I  myself  played  such  a  part 
is  to  me." 

No  one  can  doubt  that  there  is  the  broad  stamp  of  truth 
about  these  very  definite  words.  There  are  times  when  a 
nation,  driven  into  a  corner,  has  no  choice  but  to  appeal  to 
war  as  the  ultima  ratio.  It  is  probable  that  in  191 4  the  states- 
men of  Austria-Hungary  considered — and  surely  not  entirely 
without  reason — that  they  were  already  confronted  with 
such  an  emergency.  But  I  cannot  resist  a  feeling  that  the 
Emperor  Francis  Joseph,  who  had  the  last  word,  at  any  rate 
officially,  let  himself  be  drawn  into  a  catastrophical  situation 
without  definite  intentions,  fixed  aims  or  a  clear  appreciation 
of  what  might  be  expected  to  happen. 

He  was  always  essentially  against  the  war.  That  such  was 
his  standpoint  is  a  fact  which  cannot  be  argued  away,  and 
imposes  its  own  acceptance.  It  is  explained  by  the  further 
fact  that  Francis  Joseph  had  little  confidence  either  in  his 
diplomats  or  his  generals,  while  of  late  years  he  had  come 
to  doubt  even  the  efficiency  of  his  army.  He  had  therefore 
to  be  urged  forward,  step  by  step,  on  the  path  which  ulti- 
mately led   to  the  destruction  of  the  Danube  Monarchy. 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

So  far  from  being  easy,  this  was  a  most  formidable  task  for 
those  who,  no  doubt  from  the  purest  motives — I  make  no 
kind  of  imputation  against  their  bona  fides — were  determined 
to  secure  an  appeal  to  arms.  Thus  it  is  hardly  to  be  wondered 
at  that  of  the  means  chosen  some  were  open  to  objection, 
particularly  as  with  every  step  that  brought  the  Emperor  and 
his  subjects  nearer  to  war  the  old  sovereign's  invincible 
optimism  made  him  indulge  in  a  creditable  conviction  that 
the  next  one,  potentially  longer  and  more  dangerous,  could 
still  be  avoided.  In  July,  1914,  Francis  Joseph  clung  to  that 
straw,  all  the  more  fervently  because  he  knew  that  neither  the 
Government  nor  the  General  Staff  in  Germany  was  anxious 
for  war.     That  much  is  certain. 

In  this  connection  it  is  exceedingly  regrettable  that  neither 
the  official  reports  which  the  unquestionably  incompetent 
Austro-Hungarian  ambassador  in  Berlin  sent  to  our  Foreign 
Office,  nor  the  oral  information  which  the  German  ambassador 
in  Vienna,  von  Tschirschky,  felt  called  upon  to  give,  were  of 
a  nature  to  keep  Count  Berchtold  (surely  anything  but  a 
far-seeing  statesman)  and  his  colleagues  continuously  posted 
as  to  the  real  state  of  public  feeling  in  Germany.  Indeed, 
the  impression  we  gathered  was  exactly  the  opposite,  and  it 
has  been  expressly  confirmed  by  the  strong  words  of  a  very 
well-informed  German  diplomat  with  whom  I  talked  quite 
recently  : 

"  If  it  hadn't  been  for  the  unprecedentedly  stupid,  or, 
rather,  downright  criminal  behaviour  of  the  so-called  states- 
men in  Berlin  and  the  aggressiveness  of  Count  Pourtales, 
the  German  ambassador  in  St.  Petersburg,  the  situation 
would  probably  have  been  saved  even  at  the  last  moment." 

Hence  the  fact  that  particularly  in  Austria  large  numbers 
of  people  are  even  to-day  absolutely  unshakable  in  their 
conviction  that  the  Hapsburg  Empire  was  driven  into  the 
war  by  Germany.  It  is  quite  untrue.  The  bottom  is  knocked 
out  of  the  suggestion  by  Count  Berchtold's  declaration  (to 

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The  Old  Emperor  in  the  World  War 

which  I  have  referred  previously)  that  Austria-Hungary's 
freedom  of  action  against  Serbia  was  not  influenced  or  re- 
stricted by  Germany  in  any  way. 

At  this  point  events  followed  hard  on  each  other's  heels. 
That  is  proved  by  the  news  which  reached  Ischl  from  Vienna 
during  the  Saturday  night  and  the  early  hours  of  Sunday, 
the  26th  July.  It  was  all  too  plain  for  words  that  everyone 
was  seriously  reckoning  on  the  outbreak  of  hostilities,  and  that 
appropriate  preparations  were  being  made  in  frantic  haste. 
It  was  known,  too,  that  as  early  as  Friday,  the  24th  July, 
i.e.,  the  very  day  after  the  Austro-Hungarian  ultimatum 
was  received,  the  Serbians  had  begun  to  mobilize.  They 
obviously  had  no  intention  whatever  of  accepting  the  Austro- 
Hungarian  demands.  Could  not  that  have  been  foreseen  on 
our  side  ? 

During  the  same  Saturday  night  Count  Berchtold  had 
issued  a  binding  declaration  in  St.  Petersburg  and  Rome  that 
in  its  dispute  with  Serbia  the  Monarchy  was  not  aiming  at 
any  kind  of  territorial  aggrandizement.  In  that  way  the 
Foreign  Minister  hoped  to  keep  Russia  from  intervening 
as  well  as  to  lose  no  time  in  getting  round  the  awkward  corner 
of  Balkan  compensation  provided  for  in  the  Triple  Alliance 
with  Italy. 

But  if  so,  whatever  was  the  real  object  of  our  unfortunate 
ultimatum  ?  Was  it  the  prelude  merely  to  a  so-called 
"  punitive  expedition  "  without  any  of  the  usual  positive  ob- 
jects ?  If  so,  events  were  to  show  that  it  was  very  ill-con- 
sidered and  made  a  highly  unpractical  start. 

Everyone,  the  Emperor  included,  had  undoubtedly  assumed 
that  Serbia  would  simply  accept  our  ultimatum.  When  things 
turned  out  otherwise,  good  advice  was  scarce.  The  next 
thing  was  to  strain  every  nerve  to  limit  the  conflict  to  the  war 
with  Serbia.  On  the  other  hand,  it  appeared  to  be  quite 
foolish  to  indulge  in  illusions  on  that  subject,  for  Colonels 
Zankievicz  and  Winneken,  the  Russian  military  attaches  in 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

Vienna  from  1909  to  1914,  had  often  told  me  to  my  face 
that  Russia  would  always  be  found  at  Serbia's  side.  They 
were  emphatic  on  the  point  the  moment  I  started  to  discuss 
our  differences  with  Belgrade.  In  any  case  I  suggested  that 
the  Emperor  should  return  to  Vienna  as  soon  as  possible 
to  be  present  personally  on  the  main  stage.  But  as  the  Arch- 
duke Charles  (who  had  been  appointed  colonel  in  the  Em- 
peror's Hussars,  No.  i,  on  the  24th  July),  the  Austro-Hun- 
garian  envoy  in  Belgrade,  Baron  von  Giesl,  and  Major  Gel- 
linek,  our  military  attache  there,  were  to  be  received  by  the 
Emperor  in  Ischl  and  all  arrangements  had  been  made,  my 
proposal  that  the  court  should  remove  to  Vienna  was  not 
adopted  for  the  time  being. 

About  mid-day  on  Sunday,  the  26th  July,  a  telephone 
message  reached  me  from  the  War  Ministry  in  Vienna  that 
the  Voivode  Putnik,  Chief  of  Staff  of  the  Serbian  Army, 
had  been  held  up  at  Budapest  and  interned  as  a  prisoner  of 
war.  He  had  been  staying  at  an  Austrian  spa  for  a  cure, 
and  had  been  surprised  by  the  news  of  the  breaking-off  of 
diplomatic  relations,  and  tried  to  get  back  to  Belgrade  at 
break-neck  speed.  In  Vienna  an  exaggerated  importance 
was  attributed  to  this  incident,  because  it  was  assumed  that 
at  this  particular  moment  the  absence  of  Putnik,  who  was 
rightly  regarded  as  the  head  of  the  Serbian  Army,  would 
cause  difficulties  and  confusion  in  the  preparations  of  the 
enemy's  army.  As  was  only  to  be  expected,  the  Emperor 
then  ordered  Putnik's  release,  and  he  continued  his  journey 
without  let  or  hindrance. 

In  accordance  with  Sunday  custom  the  Emperor  took 
luncheon  with  his  family  and  suite  at  half-past  two  in  the 
villa  at  Ischl.  As  the  gentlemen  assembled  there  was,  of 
course,  a  lively  discussion  on  the  subject  of  the  event  which 
had  made  us  hold  our  breath  since  the  previous  evening. 
What  struck  me  most  was  the  absolute  confidence  with 
which    everyone,    without   exception,    maintained    that    the 

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quarrel  between  Serbia  and  ourselves  would  remain  localized 
and  no  one  else  would  be  drawn  in.  When  I  gave  my  reasons 
for  believing  the  contrary — which  I  could  support  by 
reference  to  the  confirmation  of  my  previous  suspicions, 
that  Serbia  had  asked  and  received  definite  instructions  from 
Russia  before  she  replied  to  the  Austro-Hungarian  ulti- 
matum— I  was  thoroughly  unpopular,  and  Count  Paar  inter- 
rupted my  remarks  by  turning  to  me,  and  exclaiming 
furiously  : 

"  Berchtold  assured  me  only  yesterday  evening  that  we 
should  have  to  deal  with  Serbia  alone,  and  he  ought  to 
know !  " 

The  appearance  of  the  Emperor  put  an  end  to  the  con- 
versation. We  went  in  to  lunch.  It  was  the  last  meal 
which  the  old  Emperor  took  with  any  considerable  party 
in  that  Ischl  villa,  which  a  thousand  memories  had  made 
so  dear  to  him.  As  if  he  knew  it  he  was  very  quiet  and 
absorbed.  The  meal  passed  in  an  unusual  and  oppressive 
silence.  There  was  no  conversation  afterwards,  a  most 
striking  feature.  The  Emperor  rose  without  a  word,  and 
returned  straight  to  his  cabinet. 

A  melancholy  Sunday  ! 

It  passed  very  slowly,  too,  for  dispatches  and  reports 
came  in  until  the  night  was  far  advanced,  while  the  telephone 
to  Vienna  was  going  all  the  time. 

At  the  morning  conference  on  the  Monday,  July  27, 
the  Emperor  reserved  his  decision  with  regard  to  the  return 
to  Vienna  until  after  the  Ambassador,  Vladimir  Giesl,  had 
presented  his  report  in  the  afternoon. 

"  That's  a  good  sign,"  said  Count  Paar  cheerfully.  The 
Emperor's  remark  had  shaken  him  in  his  usual  pessi- 
mism. "  Just  you  see  if  everything  doesn't  turn  out  all 
right !  " 

How  gladly  would  I  have  shared  his  pleasant  anticipations. 
Unfortunately,  I  could  only  heave  a  sigh  of  resignation,  and 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

reply  with  Goethe's  words  :  "  Noch  am  Grabe  pflanzt  der 
Mensch  die  Hoffnung  auf  !  "* 

In  the  afternoon  Baron  Giesl  von  Gieslingen  and  Major 
Gellinek  arrived  in  Ischl.  The  former  reported  immediately 
to  the  Emperor,  while  the  latter  called  on  me  while  he 
waited. 

Gellinek  obviously  cherished  the  most  extravagant  hopes. 
He  kept  telling  me  with  facile  eloquence  that  the  Serbian 
army  had  been  utterly  exhausted  by  the  two  years  of  war 
in  the  Balkans,  that  it  was  extremely  badly  off  for  equipment 
and  armament,  and  that  the  Belgrade  Government  could 
bring  hardly  100,000  efficient  troops  into  the  field  against  us. 

"  With  six  Austro-Hungarian  army  corps,"  he  cried 
enthusiastically,  "  we  shall  force  Serbia  to  her  knees  in  a 
month,  and  occupy  the  whole  of  her  territory." 

He  told  me  of  the  panic  and  hopeless  terror  which  the 
ultimatum  had  produced  everywhere  in  Belgrade.  He  met 
my  objection  that  if  that  were  so  it  would  have  been  easy 
for  Serbia  to  avert  further  peril  by  unconditional  acceptance 
by  the  remark  that  Belgrade  was  prepared  to  stake  everything 
for  motives  of  national  prestige,  and  that  Serbian  patriotism 
had  been  lashed  into  such  a  fury  of  fanaticism  that  the  country 
would  rather  go  down  fighting  than  yield  to  the  categorical 
summons  of  Vienna. 

The  following  morning  Count  Paar  told  me  that  Baron 
Giesl's  views  were  entirely  in  agreement  with  those  of 
Gellinek. 

"  It  was  a  real  comfort  to  talk  with  Giesl  yesterday,"  he 
said.  "  His  words  quite  carried  me  out  of  the  doleful 
atmosphere  here." 

I  confess  I  was  quite  revolted  at  this  piece  of  bombast. 
But  it  was  apparently  only  a  very  cheap  way  of  obtaining 
credit  and  authority.  I  had  plenty  of  opportunity  of  observ- 
ing the  same  phenomenon  subsequently. 

♦  Man  will  plant  the  seed  of  hope  even  on  the  grave. 
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The  Old  Emperor  in  the  World  War 

On  that  day  war  was  actually  declared  on  Serbia.  When 
I  handed  the  necessary  document  to  Count  Paar  he  shook 
his  head  mournfully,  and  dropped  a  remark  which  gave  me 
much  food  for  thought  later  on  : 

"  This  may  be  all  right,  but  all  I  can  say  is  that  men  of 
eighty-four  years  of  age  don't  sign  war  proclamations !  " 

Yet  that  is  exactly  what  the  old  Emperor  Francis  Joseph 
did,  for  all  his  world-wide  reputation  as  the  apostle  of  peace  ! 

The  declaration  of  war  and  proclamation  were  accom- 
panied by  the  partial  mobilization  of  the  Austro-Hungarian 
army  and  the  mobilization  of  the  fleet.  We  entered  the 
struggle  resolutely  and  of  our  own  free  will.  The  Emperor's 
original  determination  to  avert  a  conflict  had  given  way 
at  last  ! 

On  Wednesday,  July  29,  the  Emperor  at  last  ordered 
our  return  to  Schonbrunn  for  early  the  next  morning.  In 
issuing  his  instructions  he  was  moved  and  distressed  as  I  had 
never  seen  him  before.  He  could  hardly  speak,  and  gave 
tongue  to  the  agitation  that  tormented  him  in  the  words  : 

"  Where  are  we  going  ?     What's  in  store  for  us  ?  " 

When  I  told  Count  Paar  of  this  I  gave  him  a  questioning 
look.  He  could  not  meet  my  gaze,  but  stared  uncomfortably 
at  the  ground. 

In  a  low  voice  he  told  me  that  the  Emperor  had  been 
driven  in  a  corner  and  the  war  forced  on  him  by  represen- 
tations that  Serbian  troops  had  already  invaded  Bosnia  and 
Southern  Hungary  and  occupied  portions  of  our  territory. 

I  absolutely  refused  to  believe  such  a  suggestion  !  It 
was  not  only  contrary  to  what  Major  Gellinek  had  told  me 
two  days  before,  but  in  view  of  the  short  time  that  had 
elapsed  it  was  a  physical  impossibility.  My  suspicions  began 
to  grow.  To  wean  the  Emperor  from  his  last  longings  for 
peace  he  had  been  deceived  by  false  representations  that  he 
had  no  other  alternative  but  to  declare  war  on  Serbia  because 
the  Serbs  had  already  crossed  the  Drina  and  the  Save  in 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

force  !  Some  attributed  the  trick  to  Count  Berchtold.  It 
was  only  natural  that  he  should  be  suspected,  but  his  responsi- 
bility has  not  been  proved. 

Here  was  a  puzzle  ! 

Count  Paar  solved  the  dilemma  by  regarding  the  joint 
Finance  Minister,  Bilinski,  as  the  instigator  of  the  declara- 
tion of  war  ;  but  Bilinski  had  not  been  at  Ischl  at  all,  and  he 
could  not  have  had  much  chance  of  bringing  off  so  com- 
plicated and  dangerous  a  manoeuvre  from  Vienna. 

The  sun  shone  gloriously  and  Ischl  looked  its  loveliest 
as  we  bade  it  farewell  on  Thursday,  July  30. 

The  Emperor  said  a  few  words  of  farewell  to  the  officials 
present  on  the  platform.  When  he  said  good-bye  to  Father 
Stadler,  the  splendid  Ischl  priest,  the  latter  quietly  blessed 
him  with  the  sign  of  the  cross  and  accompanied  his  action 
with  a  hearty  :  "  To  our  next  meeting,  your  Majesty  !  "  As 
he  entered  the  special  train  the  Emperor  was  greatly  moved, 
and  remarked  :  "  Father  Stadler  couldn't  have  given  me  a 
finer  farewell  message.     If  only  his  wish  comes  true  !  " 

Providence  willed  otherwise,  for  Francis  Joseph  never  saw 
his  beloved  Ischl  again. 

The  Great  War  had  begun  ! 

It  is  a  matter  for  debate  whether  the  military  prospects 
of  the  Danube  Monarchy  would  have  been  better  between 
1908  and  191 3,  or  whether  it  would  have  been  wiser  to 
embark  upon  that  "  preventive  "  war  which  General  Conrad- 
Hotzendorf,  Chief  of  the  General  Staff,  had  been  advocating 
since  1907.  I  need  only  recall  Bismarck's  weighty  words  : 
**  When  you  start  a  war  you  know  when  the  first  shot  is 
fired,  but  you  can  never  tell  when  the  last  will  be  !  " 

In  any  case,  the  fact  that,  with  the  exception  of  Ger- 
many, all  the  combatants  were  in  the  ranks  of  our  enemies 
and  that  even  our  allies,  Italy  and  Rumania,  joined  them, 
proves  that  the  foreign  policy  of  the  Danube  Monarchy  was 
on  totally  false  lines  and  demonstrates  the  lamentable  failure 

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The  Old  Emperor  in  the  World  War 

of  our  diplomacy.  First  of  all  the  diplomats  were  absolutely 
convinced  that  the  ultimatum  would  be  accepted.  Then 
they  counted  on  the  localization  of  the  quarrel  with  Serbia, 
and  in  the  end  they  witnessed  England's  declaration  of  war 
on  Francis  Joseph,  the  same  England  whose  King, 
Edward  VII.,  had  offered  Serbia  to  the  Emperor  a  few  years 
before  ! 

Who  can  doubt  that  it  was  the  very  existence  of  Austria- 
Hungary  which  was  at  stake  ?  In  my  opinion  the  Haps- 
burg  Empire  had  its  last  chance  of  solving  the  Balkan  problem, 
and  thereby  assuring  the  future  development  of  the  monarchy, 
in  1903  and  the  two  following  years.  There  was  no  chance 
afterwards. 

On  June  13,  1903,  the  Obrenovitch  family  was  removed 
from  the  throne  by  violence,  and  succeeded  by  Peter  Kara- 
georgevitch,  who  notoriously  had  aided  and  abetted  all  the 
efforts  and  conspiracies  to  unite  all  those  speaking  the 
Southern-Slav  tongue  under  one  sceptre.  At  a  blow  the 
relations  of  the  Danube  Monarchy  to  its  south-eastern 
neighbour  were  changed  fundamentally.  The  authorities 
in  Vienna  should  have  realized  the  fact  and  acted 
accordingly. 

What  a  favourable  moment  it  was  !  In  February,  1904, 
Russia  found  herself  involved  in  her  critical  war  with  Japan, 
and  Japan's  ally  was — England  !  France  would  never  have 
attacked  Germany,  any  more  than  Italy  would  have  attacked 
Austria-Hungary. 

In  1903  fate  was  on  the  side  of  the  Emperor  Francis 
Joseph. 

In  the  autumn  of  that  year  the  Czar,  Nicholas  II.,  came 
to  Miirzsteg  to  sound  the  Emperor  on  the  Balkan  question. 
It  could  easily  have  been  cleared  up  for  a  long  time  to  come. 
Instead  of  obtaining  that  result,  the  Austro-Hungarian 
diplomats  contented  themselves  with  certain  theoretical  and 
colourless  agreements.     The  Russians  were  so  overcome  at 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

such  modesty  that  they  refused  it  their  full  confidence  and 
suspected  arrieres  pensees,  than  which  nothing  was  further 
from  the  mind  of  Count  Goluchowsky,  the  Foreign  Minister- 
On  the  evening  before  the  departure  from  Miirzsteg  I  had  a 
talk  about  the  political  future  of  the  monarchy  with  Mossolov, 
the  Czar's  Aide-de-Camp,  and  Roop,  the  Russian  military 
attache  in  Vienna.     Mossolov  said  quite  frankly  : 

"  From  all  I  hear  everything  will  be  arranged  much  more 
easily  than  we  suspect.  Many  questions  have  just  been 
settled  by  a  very  simple  compact,  especially  as  we  were  quite 
prepared  to  make  several  concessions,  valuable  concessions, 
in  order  to  restore  stability  once  and  for  all  in  the  Balkans. 
But  we  didn't  get  quite  as  far  as  that.  All  the  better.  For 
the  moment  we  can  be  quite  satisfied !  " 

But  why  that  "  we  didn't  get  quite  as  far  as  that  ?  " 

Was  it  the  fault  of  Goluchowsky  ?  Perhaps,  but  not 
entirely.  He  certainly  continued  those  vacillations  in  the 
foreign  policy  of  Austria-Hungary  which  had  characterized 
the  work  of  his  predecessor  in  office.  Count  Kalnoky.  For  a 
long  time  Kalnoky  showed  a  marked  preference  for  Serbia, 
particularly  during  the  Serbo- Bulgarian  war  of  1885,  thereby 
revealing  his  ignorance  of  where  the  real  danger  for  the 
Danube  Monarchy  in  the  Balkans  lay.  Then  his  sympathies 
turned  towards  Bulgaria.  Serbia  was  let  down,  although 
she  was  the  direct  neighbour  of  the  Hapsburg  Empire* 
The  fickleness  of  the  Austro-Hungarian  Foreign  Office  must 
soon  have  created  an  impression  of  weakness  in  St.  Peters- 
burg. In  influential  Russian  circles  the  view  began  to  gain 
ground  that  Vienna  did  not  really  know  what  it  wanted  in 
the  Balkans. 

This  naturally  had  fatal  consequences. 

Yet  the  root  of  the  evil  was  to  be  found,  not  so  much  in 
the  policy  of  the  Foreign  Office,  as  in  the  internal  situation 
of  the  Danube  Monarchy,  particularly  the  difficulties  with 
Hungary,  which  was  already  attacking  the  foundations  of 

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The  Old  Emperor  in  the  World  War 

the  Empire.  In  that  very  year,  1903,  the  current  of  narrow- 
minded  and  short-sighted  national  feeling  in  Hungary  was 
again  flowing  strong. 

In  that  eventful  August  of  1914  the  Emperor  was  the 
only  man  whose  immense  experience  enabled  him  to  forget 
nothing  himself,  and  often  to  remind  his  ministers,  advisers 
and  generals  of  various  essential  matters  which  had  still  to 
be  arranged. 

Meanwhile,  the  concentration  of  the  Austro-Hungarian 
army  had  proceeded  with  what  on  the  whole  was  exemplary 
precision,  or,  at  any  rate,  remarkable  efficiency,  which  was 
to  be  ascribed  to  the  fact  that  orders  for  the  partial  mobiliza- 
tion and  the  concentration  against  Serbia  had  been  issued 
in  the  last  days  of  July. 

The  effect  was  that  of  the  sixteen  Austro-Hungarian  army 
corps  eight  were  sent  to  the  Bosnian  and  Southern  Hun- 
garian frontiers  against  Serbia,  and  eight  went  to  Galicia  to 
hold  up  the  Russian  armies. 

This  plan,  which  was  nothing  more  than  a  mathematical 
division  of  the  troops  available,  and  revealed  no  profound 
thought,  had  been  drawn  up  by  General  Conrad  von  Hotzen- 
dorf,  who  directed  the  operations  of  the  Austro-Hungarian 
army  in  the  following  years  and  as  long  as  the  Emperor 
Francis  Joseph  Hved.  He  was  in  sole  charge  and  had 
unlimited  powers. 

In  view  of  the  Emperor's  great  age  it  was,  of  course, 
impossible  for  him  to  lead  his  armies  in  person.  A  suitable 
representative  was  not  easy  to  find,  as  the  Emperor,  in 
accordance  with  tradition,  had  a  member  of  his  House  in 
mind  for  this  post.  At  last  a  sufficient  measure  of  agree- 
ment was  reached,  and  he  appointed  General  the  Archduke 
Frederick,  who  had  hitherto  commanded  the  Austrian  Land- 
wehr,  to  be  Commander-in-Chief.  At  the  same  time  he 
was   privately   deprived   of   any   practical   control   over   the 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

army  by  special  orders  and  specifically  instructed  that  he 
was  to  approve  and  cover  with  his  authority  all  decisions  of 
the  Chief  of  the  General  Staff. 

Thus,  in  practice,  General  von  Conrad  was  armed  with 
powers  such  as  no  one  has  ever  possessed  in  the  Danube 
Monarchy  before,  especially  as  Army  Headquarters  was 
assigned  an  extensive  authority  to  intervene  in  general 
political  and  domestic  affairs. 

This  remarkable  organization  of  the  supreme  military 
authority  was  destined  to  prove  itself  an  over-hasty  and  rather 
unhappy  compromise,  perhaps  for  that  very  reason.  At 
first  the  Emperor  objected  strongly  to  this  antique  solution 
of  a  difficult  and  important  problem.  He  would  have 
preferred  to  command  his  army  himself,  at  any  rate, 
nominally,  and,  as  his  advanced  age  kept  him  tied  to  Vienna, 
to  send  the  Chief  of  the  General  Staff  to  the  front  with  the 
necessary  organizing  staff.  Baron  von  Conrad  did  not  like 
this  suggestion,  however,  as  it  restricted  his  powers.  So, 
even  in  the  early  days  of  August  the  General  Staff  inten- 
tionally, and  not  unskilfully,  started  an  ominous  rumour 
about  an  up-to-date  version  of  the  notorious  "  Court  Council 
of  War,"  and  it  came  to  the  ears  of  the  Emperor,  as  it  was 
meant  to  do.  The  manoeuvre  was  not  unsuccessful,  for  in 
the  end  the  Emperor  allowed  the  fact  that  the  Archduke 
Frederick  was  the  nephew  and  heir  of  Field-Marshal  the 
Archduke  Albrecht  (the  victor  of  Custozza  in  1866)  and  the 
grandson  of  Field-Marshal  the  Archduke  Charles  (the  victor 
of  Aspern  in  1809)  to  persuade  him  into  appointing  the 
Archduke  nominal  Commander-in-Chief,  while  the  de  jacto 
leader  was  von  Conrad,  who  had  all  the  great  powers  and 
prerogatives  of  the  post  in  his  own  hands. 

It  was  just  because  the  Emperor  had  no  particular  con- 
fidence even  in  the  Chief  of  the  General  Staff  that  from  the 
very  start — whatever  folk  may  say — ^he  had  such  small  hopes 
of  a  successful  handling  of  his  armies.     And  it  was  just  because 

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The  Old  Emperor  in  the  World  War 

the  Emperor  of  all  men,  the  highest  in  the  land,  cherished 
this  uneasy  feeling  that  it  communicated  itself,  slowly  but 
unceasingly,  to  ever  wider  circles.  Even  by  the  end  of 
August  I  heard  many  despondent  remarks  from  members  of 
the  Emperor's  entourage,  including  even  Count  Paar. 

In  the  first  days  of  the  war,  when  we  could  still  hope 
that  we  should  have  to  deal  with  Serbia  alone,  there  was  an 
idea  of  establishing  General  Headquarters  in  the  South- 
Hungarian  town  of  Ujvidek  (Neusatz).  In  view  of  the 
unexpectedly  swift  intervention  of  Russia  in  the  war  there 
was  nothing  for  it  but  to  transfer  headquarters  immediately 
to  the  Galician  fortress  of  Przemysl. 

The  Emperor  remained  at  Schonbrunn,  which  was 
destined  to  be  his  sole  and  permanent  residence  until  his 
death. 

Francis  Joseph's  isolation  from  the  world  was  henceforth 
to  be  an  actual  reality,  for  the  Grand  Chamberlain,  Prince 
Montenuovo,  acting  with  the  best  intentions,  closed  that 
part  of  the  park  immediately  contiguous  to  the  palace 
which  was  open  to  the  public  in  normal  times.  Thus  the 
Emperor's  residence  at  Schonbrunn  was  not  far  removed 
from  imprisonment.  He  was,  as  it  were,  interned.  The 
reason  assigned  for  this  step  was  that  in  the  stormy  times  to 
come  there  might  be  popular  demonstrations,  and  care 
must  be  taken  that  the  sovereign  heard  and  saw  nothing  of 
them. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  obvious  that  the  Emperor's 
complete  seclusion  from  public  life  had  certain  very  serious 
and  principally  moral  disadvantages,  which  before  long  all 
the  world  could  see.  Men  began  to  speak  of  him  as  of  a 
mythical,  non-existent  person.  Rumours  that  he  had  died 
and  that  his  death  was  being  kept  secret  by  those  about  him 
— as  in  the  classic  case  of  Sultan  Soliman  II. — gained  cur- 
rency and  occasionally  produced  no  little  excitement.  In 
educated  circles,  on  the  other  hand,  it  was  rumoured  that 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

the  Emperor  had  grown  weak-minded  in  his  old  age,  and 
was  being  purposely  held  prisoner  by  his  entourage  so  that 
they  could  secure  all  power  for  themselves  and  govern  exactly 
as  they  liked.  This  version  was  aimed  principally  at  Prince 
Montenuovo,  whose  actions  were  regarded  as  open  to  this 
kind  of  attack. 

About  the  middle  of  August  operations  began  both  in 
the  northern  and  southern  theatres  of  war. 

The  reports  of  these  operations  came  to  the  Emperor 
through  General  Headquarters  alone.  In  this  matter  also 
its  authority  was  untrammelled,  because  it  could  influence 
his  decisions  and  the  way  they  were  framed  to  its  own 
purposes. 

As  before,  all  ministers,  including  the  military  heads, 
such  as  the  War  Minister,  General  Baron  von  Krobatin, 
the  Austrian  Defence  Minister,  General  Baron  von  Georgi, 
and  his  Hungarian  colleague.  General  von  Hazai,  had  direct 
access  to  the  sovereign  personally.  These  three  were 
thoroughly  efficient  officers,  who  were  in  every  way  equal 
to  the  demands  of  their  respective  offices,  and  deservedly 
enjoyed  the  Emperor's  fullest  confidence.  The  same  holds 
good  of  Admiral  Haus,  the  excellent  Commander-in-Chief 
of  the  Fleet. 

Amidst  the  first  clash  of  arms  fell  the  Emperor's  birthday, 
on  August  1 8,  1914. 

An  enormous  number  of  congratulatory  telegrams  arrived, 
though,  of  course,  there  were  none  from  countries  with 
which  Austria-Hungary  was  at  war.  With  one  of  them  I 
was  particularly  struck.  It  was  from  the  Rumanian  General 
Averescu,  to  Count  Paar,  and  one  of  its  sentences  ran  as 
follows : 

"  I  particularly  hope  that  His  Majesty  will  find  himself 
able  to  bear  up  against  the  shocks  inherent  to  all  wars,  even 
the  most  successful  ones." 

Whereas   most   of   the   telegrams   were   put   before   the 

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The  Old  Emperor  in  the  World  War 

Emperor  in  bulk,  nothing  being  said  about  their  individual 
contents,  and  answered  formally,  I  read  out  Averescu's  con- 
gratulations to  the  Emperor  word  for  word.  The  old  man 
shook  his  head  and  said  : 

"  Well  meant,  of  course.  But  is  this  war  going  to  be 
successjul  jor  us  ?  Even  at  this  stage  everything  seems  to 
point  otherwise  !  " 

Thus  that  fundamentally  pessimistic  outlook  which 
characterized  the  Emperor  throughout  the  war  found  un- 
blushing expression  even  in  the  first  few  days.  During  the 
next  two  years  a  whole  series  of  remarks  made  by  him  con- 
firmed the  impression  that  Francis  Joseph  had  no  confidence 
in  victory  whatever.  I  was  staggered  by  the  old  monarch's 
lack  of  confidence  in  a  successful  outcome  of  the  mighty 
conflict.  I  could  not  help  remembering  how  Napoleon  had 
endeavoured  to  justify  the  risk  of  desperate  enterprises — 
and  was  any  enterprise  more  desperate  than  the  struggle 
of  the  Central  Empires  with  the  rest  of  the  world  combined  ? 
— solely  with  the  remark  :   "  C'est  la  foi  qui  sauve  !  " 

Francis  Joseph  was  never  inspired  by  that  "  faith."  Thus 
we  arrive  at  the  paradox  which  I  have  always  found  absolutely 
incomprehensible.  How  could  the  old  sovereign  have  em- 
barked upon  a  war  which  he  regarded  as  a  lost  war  from  the 
very  start  ?  There  is,  of  course,  a  problematic  answer 
which  I  frequently  received  when  I  put  that  ominous  ques- 
tion :  Austria-Hungary's  leaders  wanted  war,  but  only 
a  war  with  Serbia.  It  was  not  anticipated  that  that  conflict 
would  become  a  world  war.  The  eventuality  had  not  been 
allowed  for,  and  when  it  materiaHzed  there  was  no  alter- 
native but  to  make  the  best  of  it. 

In  Galicia  as  against  Serbia  the  imperial  armies  took  the 
offensive  tone  to  the  principles  Conrad  had  instilled  into 
them.  Yet  Conrad  had  miscalculated  the  enemy's  strength 
and  intentions  in  both  theatres  of  war. 

In  the  north  it  soon  appeared  that  the  Russians  had 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

carried  through  their  mobilization  far  more  swiftly  than 
Conrad  had  anticipated  or  been  willing  to  anticipate,  with 
the  result  that  they  unexpectedly  appeared  on  Galician  soil 
in  enormous  solid  masses.  In  the  emergency  thus  caused 
Austro-Hungarian  troops  were  rushed  up  to  meet  them,  and 
sent  into  action  in  driblets  as  fast  as  the  railways  could  dis- 
charge them.  It  was  an  over-hasty  and  apparently  un- 
systematic and  hand-to-mouth  proceeding,  and  the  effect 
was  that  the  Russian  advance  could  be  held  up  only  tem- 
porarily and  locally. 

This  development  showed  that  Conrad's  strategic  cal- 
culations were  all  wrong.  Apparently  he  had  anticipated 
a  Russian  offensive  with  their  main  force  against  the  northern 
frontier  of  Galicia,  whereas  the  Russian  torrent,  in  fact, 
flowed  in  from  the  east.  The  Austro-Hungarian  generals, 
Dankl  and  Auffenberg,  who  had  invaded  Poland  when  opera- 
tions began,  certainly  won  partial  and  local  victories,  but 
the  enemy's  striking  force  swiftly  and  surely  over-ran  Eastern 
Galicia,  captured  Lemberg  on  September  3,  and  could  not 
be  held  up  before  it  reached  the  San  on  the  fortified  Przemysl- 
Jaroslav-Sieniava  line.  Dankl  and  Auffenburg  were 
hastily  brought  back  to  the  centre,  and  Conrad's  offensive 
had  entirely  collapsed  after  a  few  weeks  and  given  place 
to  a  highly  precarious  defensive  in  Central  Galicia  imposed 
upon  him  by  the  enemy.  The  five  corps  now  hastily  trans- 
ferred from  the  south-east  arrived  only  just  in  time  for  this 
second  stage. 

General  Headquarters  could  remain  no  longer  in  Przemysl, 
which  was  now  in  the  battle  front.  It  was  withdrawn,  first 
to  Neusandec  and  then  Teschen.  In  that  town  the  Arch- 
duke Frederick  occupied  a  large  castle.  Headquarters  was 
installed  there  for  more  than  two  years,  and  no  one  thought 
of  making  any  change,  even  when  Teschen  had  become  so 
far  from  the  front  that  it  seemed  to  have  no  advantages 
whatever  as  headquarters. 

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The  Old  Emperor  in  the  World  War 

Events  in  the  south-east  had  taken  the  same  course  as  in 
the  north. 

Our  forces  which  had  crossed  the  Drina  from  Bosnia  were 
immediately  thrown  back  by  the  Serbians,  and  as  more  than  half 
of  the  units  employed  against  Serbia  had  to  be  transferred  to 
Galicia  as  the  result  of  events  in  the  north,  our  offensive  came 
to  a  complete  standstill  almost  before  it  had  started. 

The  obstinate  and  successful  resistance  of  the  Serbians 
caused  Francis  Joseph  no  little  astonishment.  How  was  it 
consistent  with  all  that  Ambassador  Baron  von  Giesl  and  Major 
Gellinek  had  reported  on  July  27  ?  The  explanation  was 
not  far  to  seek,  even  then.  When  the  ultimatum  made  the 
situation  exceedingly  tense  in  Serbia,  the  Serbians  naturally 
thought  that  all  they  could  expect  was  an  invasion  by  the 
Austro-Hungarians  in  overwhelming  force.  On  the  contrary, 
nothing  happened  for  days  and  even  weeks,  as  even  a  partial 
mobilization  was  not  ordered  by  Vienna  until  after  the  Serbian 
reply  was  received  on  July  25.  The  undoubted  depression 
of  the  Serbians  after  Berchtold's  declaration  of  war  was 
received  gave  place  to  immense  enthusiasm  when  they  realized 
that  the  mobilization  of  the  Serbian  army  could  proceed 
without  opposition.  Their  spirits  rose  from  hour  to  hour, 
for  there  could  be  no  question  of  any  vigorous  intervention 
by  the  imperial  armies.  There  was  no  time.  It  could  not 
well  have  been  otherwise,  as  no  preparations  whatever  had  been 
made  by  the  other  side. 

The  old  Emperor  soon  realized  the  great  and  tragic  scale 
of  this  mistake.  In  those  anxious  August  days  he  spoke  to 
Count  Paar  in  what  were  for  him  unusually  harsh  terms  about 
Count  Berchtold's  actions,  and  expressed  the  opinion  that 
after  the  ambassador,  Giesl,  had  abruptly  broken  off  relations 
with  Serbia  on  July  25th,  it  was  nothing  short  of  inanity 
not  to  resume  them  again  by  a  dispassionate  examination  of 
the  Serbian  answer  to  the  ultimatum  followed  by  a  reply. 
In  any  case,  it  was  now  much  too  late. 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

The  losses  suffered  by  the  Austro-Hungarian  formations 
in  the  north  and  south  were  heavy,  indeed  enormous,  a  fact 
which  deprived  the  Emperor  of  all  grounds  for  optimism  in 
the  future,  because  it  was  just  the  best  active  units  which  had 
been  terribly  decimated  at  the  very  outset  of  operations.  The 
real  test  of  war  showed  exactly  how  fatal  it  was  that  General 
Conrad  never  had  any  idea  of  economy  of  force.  The 
Emperor  was  a  prey  to  the  most  unlimited  apprehension  on 
that  account.  It  was  about  this  time  that  he  used  the 
melancholy  words  he  was  so  often  to  repeat : 

"  We  can't  find  any  suitable  sphere  of  activity  for  a  Chief 
of  the  General  Staff  with  such  soaring  plans.  We'd  be  far 
better  off  with  a  man  who  doesn't  want  to  bridge  the  ocean  !  " 

General  Potiorek,  who  was  in  command  in  the  south-east, 
turned  the  Emperor's  latent  discontent  with  Conrad  to  his 
own  advantage  by  using  his  friend,  the  Chief  of  the  Military 
Cabinet,  to  deprive  General  Headquarters  of  all  authority  or 
control  over  him.  Although  General  von  Conrad  objected, 
the  Emperor  conferred  on  General  Potiorek  the  autonomous 
powers  he  desired. 

The  act  was  an  obvious  vote  of  censure  upon  the  Chief  of 
the  General  Staff,  and  the  Emperor  actually  meant  it  in  that 
sense,  if  only  because  Conrad  had  mercilessly  removed  a  large 
number  of  generals  from  their  posts  on  the  ground  of  the 
initial  failures  in  the  northern  theatre.  The  Emperor  was 
very  indignant  and  remarked  in  an  angry  tone  :  "  Conrad 
ought  to  have  known  his  men  before  !  Now  that  so  much 
mischief  has  been  done  this  wholesale  pensioning-oft'  is  nothing 
but  a  confession  of  his  own  failure." 

Meanwhile  the  Germans  in  one  triumphal  sweep  had 
occupied  Belgium  and  invaded  Northern  France.  In  the 
extreme  north-east  General  von  Hindenburg  had  overwhelmed 
the  Russians  at  Tannenberg.  The  Emperor  William  II. 
reported  all  these  successes  to  his  aged  ally  with  pardonable 
satisfaction  and  justified  pride.     Francis  Joseph  did  not  fail 

334 


The  Old  Emperor  in  the  World  War 

to  realize  that  Hindenburg's  victories  were  of  greater  strategic 
importance  than  his  own  successes  at  Krasnik  and  Komarov, 
nor  did  he  forget  that  the  brilliant  feats  of  arms  in  the  west 
had  only  been  possible  because  the  Austro-Hungarian  forces 
had  attracted  the  mighty  Russian  armies  to  themselves,  so  that 
Germany  could  protect  her  eastern  frontier  with  a  thin 
screen  of  Landwehr  formations  and  use  the  bulk  of  her  active 
troops  in  France.  Yet  his  dissatisfaction  with  the  General 
Staff  was  so  great  that  towards  the  end  of  August  he  remarked 
for  the  first  time  with  a  deep  sigh  :  "  If  only  we  had  German 
leadership  !  " 

From  this,  and  many  similar  comments  made  by  the 
Emperor  subsequently,  Count  Paar  concluded  that  his  sovereign 
would  rather  have  had  the  Austro-Hungarian  armies  under  a 
German  command,  and  indeed  regarded  it  as  the  sole  guar- 
antee of  ultimate  victory.  That  view  was  shared  by  Prince 
Montenuovo. 

The  murderous  war  continued.  The  battle  of  the  Marne 
was  fought.  The  Russians  captured  Czernowitz — for  the  first 
time — and  then  the  scene  changed.  They  were  compelled 
to  raise  the  siege  of  Przemysl  and  on  October  22  to  evacuate 
Czernowitz. 

On  October  10  King  Charles  of  Rumania  died.  He  was 
not  only  one  of  the  old  Emperor's  most  faithful  personal 
friends,  but  he  had  a  genuine  preference  and  affection  for  the 
Danube  Monarchy  as  well  as  Germany,  the  land  of  his  birth. 
The  death  of  King  Charles  affected  the  Emperor  very  deeply. 
He  knew  only  too  well  that  he  had  lost  one  of  the  few  comrades 
on  whom  he  could  always  count.  He  told  me  so  himself  when 
I  gave  him  the  monthly  lists  of  royal  birthdays,  from  which 
I  had  removed  the  name  of  King  Charles,  adding  those  of  the 
new  King,  Ferdinand  and  Queen  Marie. 

"  You'll  soon  be  crossing  them  off  too,"  he  said  in  a  sad 
voice.     "  They'll  join  my  enemies  sooner  or  later." 

The  fortunes  of  war  continued  in  our  favour.     In  Turkey 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

we  found  a  new  and  most  valuable  ally,  and  in  the  south-east 
General  Potiorek  managed,  at  the  cost  of  very  heavy  losses, 
to  get  a  firm  foothold  in  Serbia  and  press  forward  to  Valievo. 
As  a  result  of  this  operation  parts  of  the  Fifth  Army,  under  its 
commander.  General  Frank,  entered  Belgrade  on  December 
2,  the  sixty-sixth  anniversary  of  the  Emperor's  accession.  To 
mark  the  occasion.  General  Frank  sent  the  Emperor  a  telegram 
announcing  the  event  and  couched  in  terms  of  reverential 
respect,  but,  strange  to  say,  the  act  made  a  most  unfavourable 
impression  upon  the  old  sovereign.  In  a  tone  of  sharp 
censure  he  remarked  that  generals  ought  to  concentrate  on 
leading  their  armies  and  not  bother  about  his  anniversaries. 

Unfortunately  the  old  Emperor  was  in  fact  quite  right  in 
his  adverse  opinion  of  the  Belgrade  announcement.  Within 
a  few  days  news  came  in  that  General  Potiorek  had  precipi- 
tately retired  into  Bosnia  and  Hungary,  after  suffering  the 
most  fearful  losses,  and  on  December  15  Belgrade  had  to  be 
evacuated  almost  before  it  had  been  occupied. 

The  fact  that  his  army  had  been  routed  by  the  Serbians 
enraged  the  old  Emperor  all  the  more  because  he  at  once 
foresaw  the  political  consequences  of  this  inexcusable  defeat. 

"  How  on  earth  can  we  pursue  even  a  tolerable  foreign 
policy  when  we  fight  so  badly  ?  "  he  often  exclaimed  to  the 
amazed  Count  Paar,  who  utterly  failed  to  soothe  his 
exasperated  sovereign. 

It  was  impossible  to  make  head  or  tail  of  Potiorek's 
dispatches  and  his  letters  to  Baron  von  Bolfras,  the  Chief  of 
the  Military  Cabinet ;  but  it  was  amazing  that  after  this  latest 
appalling  disaster  not  a  word  was  said  at  first  about  the 
possibility  of  Potiorek's  dismissal.  General  von  Bolfras  did 
more  than  merely  hesitate.  He  seemed  to  regard  the  whole 
affair  as  merely  the  fortune  of  war,  which  we  might  hope  to 
put  right  before  long.  The  Emperor  sent  his  deputy  Chief 
of  the  Military  Cabinet,  Lieutenant-General  von  Marterer, 
to  Peterwardein,  where  General  Potiorek  had  established  his 

336 


The  Old  Emperor  in  the  World  War 

headquarters  after  his  defeat,  to  get  first-hand  information 
as  to  the  situation. 

On  the  strength  of  Marterer's  report  Potiorek  was  finally- 
relieved  of  his  command  by  the  Emperor  and  replaced  by 
General  the  Archduke  Eugen,  one  of  the  few  men  in  whom  the 
sovereign  had  really  unlimited  confidence. 

These  events  were  not  mentioned  too  freely  in  the  Military- 
Cabinet,  as  its  Chief,  General  von  Bolfras,  had  participated  in 
the  dismissal  of  Potiorek,  of  whom  he  had  an  extraordinarily 
high  opinion,  with  the  greatest  reluctance.  It  was  only  when 
I  had  taken  up  my  appointment  as  Deputy  Director  of  the 
Military  Archives  at  Vienna,  in  191 8,  that  I  had  an  oppor- 
tunity of  seeing  the  relevant  documents  and  records.  I  then 
came  to  the  conclusion  that  Bolfras'  high  opinion  of  General 
Potiorek  was  justified,  as  the  latter  had  really  fallen  a  sacrifice 
to  too  accommodating  subordinates.  Unfortunately  this 
distressing  but  by  no  means  infrequent  phenomenon  could 
only  be  described  as  in  a  certain  sense  peculiarly  "  Austrian." 
It  found  its  climax  in  the  fact  that  orders  from  a  superior, 
even  such  orders  as  were  no  longer  applicable  to  the  situation 
at  the  moment,  were  followed  blindly,  mechanically  and  to 
the  letter  by  those  whose  duty  it  was  to  execute  them,  how- 
ever high  their  position  and  however  great  the  powers  con- 
ferred upon  them.  This  was  particularly  fatal  in  war,  because 
the  habit  of  shirking  responsibility  had  unfortunately  become 
neither  more  nor  less  than  a  system  in  the  Austro-Hungarian 
army  and  was  fruitful  of  the  most  serious  consequences. 

The  Potiorek  affair  was  a  case  in  point. 

After  the  capture  of  Valievo  at  a  very  high  cost  in  life 
Potiorek's  army  would  in  any  case  have  urgently  needed 
several  days'  rest,  perhaps  several  weeks,  as  the  supply  of  food, 
clothing  and  ammunition  on  the  wretched  roads  was  an  ex- 
tremely slow  business  and  a  large  part  of  the  stores  was  still 
accumulating  in  Croatia  and  Bosnia,  where  the  lines  of  com- 
munication were  congested.     The  mischief  had  reached  such 

J37  a« 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

heights  that  the  Austro-Hungarian  units  in  the  VaHevo  sector 
were  absolutely  unfit  to  fight. 

General  Potiorek  knew  nothing  of  such  deficiencies,  for — 
as  I  heard  from  several  unimpeachable  authorities — he  never 
left  the  four  walls  of  his  office  at  headquarters  because  he  had 
gone  in  perpetual  fear  of  his  own  personal  safety  since  the 
tragic  June  28,  and  never  ventured  forth  among  the  troops. 
In  his  decisions  he  was  thus  dependent  solely  upon  the  reports 
of  his  corps  commanders  and  all  his  operations  were  based  upon 
what  they  told  him. 

When  Valievo  was  reached  the  commander  of  the  15th 
Corps  reported  the  bad  condition  of  his  units,  in  accordance 
with  the  facts,  and  urgently  requested  a  pause  in  the  operations. 
The  commander  of  the  i6th  Corps,  General  Wurm,  who  knew 
of  Potiorek's  desire  to  press  on  ruthlessly  against  the  Serbians 
so  as  to  crown  the  advance  with  a  great  and  decisive  victory 
at  the  earliest  possible  moment,  could  think  of  nothing  better 
than  to  lose  no  time  in  describing  the  situation  to  his  army 
commander  in  such  glowing  terms  that  an  immediate  re- 
sumption of  the  operations  seemed  not  merely  possible  but  the 
only  proper  course.  Thereupon  Potiorek  ordered  the  advance 
of  his  army  to  continue,  in  spite  of  the  strongly  conflicting 
reports  and  without  bothering  to  ascertain  the  real  situation. 

When  everything  had  gone  hopelessly  wrong  General 
Wurm  certainly  asked  to  be  relieved  of  his  command,  and 
proposed  a  legal  inquiry  into  his  own  actions,  while  Potiorek, 
without  stopping  to  reflect,  also  accepted  unreservedly  full 
responsibility  for  what  had  happened  in  order  to  exculpate 
Wurm.  Unfortunately  this  noble  and  chivalrous  action 
of  the  two  officers  did  not  bring  back  to  life  any  of  the  many 
unfortunates  who  had  perished  miserably  through  their 
mistakes. 

As  I  have  said,  I  only  found  out  all  this  in  191 8,  from  my 
examination  of  the  war  records.  Much  of  it  was  known  to 
von  Marterer  in  December,  1914,  and  accordingly  he  at  once 

33« 


The  Old  Emperor  in  the  World  War 

took  the  view,  as  did  General  von  Bolfras,  that  Wurm  was 
mainly  responsible  and  should  be  relieved  of  his  command 
at  once.  But  as  Potiorek,  as  Commander-in-Chief,  had  to 
be  sacrificed  as  well,  he  was  allowed  to  do  duty  as  scapegoat 
for  everyone,  and  Wurm  remained  at  his  post.  To  me  the 
only  remarkable  feature  of  the  whole  affair  was  that  General 
von  Conrad,  who  was  always  ready  enough  to  get  rid  of 
generals,  even  for  the  most  trivial  mistakes,  actually  retained 
General  Wurm  in  his  post,  and  in  fact  subsequently  gave  him 
a  better  appointment,  in  which  he  certainly  made  the  most 
of  his  opportunities. 

It  was  long  before  the  facts  of  this  remarkable  affair 
ceased  to  be  discussed  in  the  Aides-de-Camp's  office  at 
Schonbrunn — the  meeting-place  where  views  on  the  events 
of  the  day  were  exchanged. 

The  usual  course  of  procedure  at  these  discussions  was 
much  as  follows  :  Before  eight  o'clock  in  the  morning  I 
went  with  the  daily  report  to  Schonbrunn,  accompanied  by 
Baron  von  Bolfras,  the  Chief  of  the  Military  Cabinet.  At 
the  Aides-de-Camp's  office  I  found  Count  Paar,  who  resided 
permanently  at  the  palace.  Prince  Montenuovo  was  al- 
ways there,  while  occasionally  I  met  Baron  von  Schiessl, 
the  Director  of  the  Civil  Cabinet,  the  Minister-Presidents, 
and  various  ministers  and  high  officials  who  were  waiting 
for  their  summons  to  conference  with  the  Emperor. 

We  spent  the  time  in  a  discussion  of  the  events  of  the 
day,  in  which  practically  everyone  joined.  As  nearly  all 
those  present  held  high  and  responsible  offices,  they  were 
of  course  very  well  informed  on  current  affairs  and  future 
intentions  and  possibiHties,  so  that  I  came  to  regard  this 
morning  talk  at  Schonbrunn  as  the  most  exciting  event  of 
the  day. 

It  is  not  without  interest  to  record  the  standpoint  and 
outlook  of  the  different  individuals  as  revealed  by  what  they 
said.     Count  Paar  was  and  remained  an  out  and  out  pessimist, 

339  22* 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

and  as  a  rule  there  was  good  reason  for  his  attitude.  Baron 
von  Bolfras,  notwithstanding  his  extreme  reserve,  showed 
that  he  was  anything  but  sanguine  and  the  same  must 
be  said  of  Baron  von  Schiessl.  Prince  Montenuovo  was  all 
for  facts  and  realities.  The  Emperor's  Aides-de-Camp,  on 
the  other  hand,  were  convinced  optimists  through  thick  and 
thin,  a  fact  which  was  natural  and  proper  enough  in  view  of 
their  comparative  youth. 

Prince  Montenuovo  was  unquestionably  the  best  in- 
formed— even  on  purely  military  affairs ;  and  when,  after 
Count  Paar  had  reported  to  the  Emperor,  I  went  back  with 
the  Prince  to  the  Hofburg,  I  had  the  opportunity  I  so 
much  desired  of  getting  a  good  deal  of  important  information 
about  the  course  of  the  war,  and  events  at  home  and  abroad. 

Sometimes,  but  not  frequently,  the  Archduke  Charles 
joined  the  daily  debating  society  in  the  Aides-de-Camp's 
office  at  Schonbrunn.  As  a  rule  this  was  on  his  return  to 
Vienna  from  a  visit  to  General  Headquarters  or  the  front. 
He  generally  joked  about  the  pessimism  which  prevailed 
at  General  Headquarters,  and  cast  meaning  glances  at  Generals 
Paar  and  Bolfras  as  he  did  so.  On  one  occasion  he  spoke  his 
mind  quite  frankly  : 

"  The  further  you  get  from  the  front  the  less  confidence 
do  you  find.  You've  got  to  be  at  the  front  to  realize  that 
we  shall  and  must  win  !  " 

The  Archduke  seemed  to  look  round  for  some  approving 
comment.  None  was  forthcoming.  It  was  the  end  of 
November,  1914.  Bitterly  disappointed,  he  made  for  the 
door,  and  said  as  he  turned  the  handle  : 

"  Courage  is  what's  wanted  !  " 

As  he  disappeared  Baron  von  Bolfras  shook  his  head  and 
remarked  : 

"  It's  easy  to  talk !  There's  plenty  of  courage,  but 
there's  one  thing  we  need  far  more,  and  that's  luck  I  The 
question  is :  will  he  bring  it  ?  " 

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The  Old  Emperor  in  the  World  War 

I  have  never  forgotten  that  significant  remark  of  the 
splendid  and  valuable  old  general.  I  often  came  across  it 
later,  for  luck  was  certainly  the  last  thing  the  Emperor  Charles 
brought  the  Danube  Monarchy. 

One  morning  we  had  the  former  Austro-Hungarian 
minister  in  Belgrade,  Vladimir  Baron  von  Giesl,  in  the  office 
at  Schonbrunn.  It  may  have  been  in  December,  191 4. 
He  had  come  straight  from  General  Headquarters,  and  was 
feeling  thoroughly  depressed  as  he  had  failed  to  obtain  either 
military  employment  or  the  promise  of  a  diplomatic  post. 
While  he  was  wailing  to  be  summoned  by  the  Emperor  he 
told  us  some  of  his  experiences  and  impressions  of  the  Russian 
front.  He  saw  everything  in  the  darkest  colours,  and  con- 
cluded his  remarks  with  the  proposal — which  he  put  forward 
quite  seriously — that  we  should  at  once  look  out  for  further 
allies,  and  in  particular  cede  the  Bukowina  to  Rumania  to 
induce  her  to  come  in  on  our  side  without  delay.  Perhaps 
he  was  not  far  wrong  there,  but  it  was  certainly  amazing 
that  these  despairing  words  came  from  the  mouth  of  the  very 
man  who  five  months  before  had  proudly  thrown  down  the 
challenge  to  the  Serbians,  and  thus  sounded  the  trumpet 
for  the  world  war  ! 

From  his  cabinet  at  Schonbrunn  the  old  Emperor  fol- 
lowed the  course  of  military  events  with  the  greatest  atten- 
tion— and  the  greatest  anxiety.  He  could  hardly  restrain 
his  impatience  as  he  waited  for  the  daily  report  from  General 
Headquarters,  which  was  practically  his  only  source  of  in- 
formation. Unfortunately,  the  news  which  came  in  was  apt 
to  be  scarce  and  sometimes  vague.  The  Emperor  often 
complained,  for  frequently  it  seemed  as  if  the  Archduke 
Frederick  and  Conrad  had  entirely  forgotten  that  as  head  of 
the  state  he  had  a  right  to  the  fullest  knowledge  of  what  was 
happening  at  the  front. 

In  his  innumerable  political  memoranda  before  the  war, 
General  Conrad  had  insisted  over  and  over  again  that  in  the 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

hour  of  danger  all  the  nations  of  the  Hapsburg  Empire  would 
stand  firm  as  a  rock  and  co-operate  wholeheartedly  for  the 
defence  of  its  territory.  Unfortunately  this  prognostication 
proved  to  be  unsound.  Once  more  Conrad  revealed  himself 
the  idealist  who  did  not  realize  the  internal  condition  of  the 
Monarchy,  and  therefore  misjudged  it. 

I  realized  this  fact  for  the  first  time  at  the  beginning 
of  September,  1914,  when  a  letter  from  the  Commander 
of  the  Bohemian  8th  Corps  came  into  my  hands.  This 
officer's  corps  had  taken  part  in  the  operations  against  the 
Serbians  in  August,  but  had  been  driven  back  in  its  first 
attacks,  and  had  suffered  huge  losses,  particularly  in  prisoners. 
Thereupon  General  Potiorek,  the  army  commander,  had 
promptly  relieved  the  Corps  Commander  of  his  command, 
and  sent  him  home  on  the  ground  of  inefficiency.  The 
officer  in  question  now  wrote  the  letter  I  have  mentioned 
to  Prince  Thun,  the  Governor  of  Bohemia,  asking  his  inter- 
vention with  a  view  to  a  fresh  command.  Prince  Thun 
sent  the  letter  with  a  covering  note  to  Count  Paar,  who 
handed  it  to  General  Bolfras,  the  competent  authority  in  such 
matters.  It  appeared  from  this  letter  that  even  in  the  first 
days  of  the  war,  not  only  men,  but  officers  and  even  entire 
companies  of  Czech  regiments,  had  gone  over  to  the  enemy. 
We  had  similar  reports  of  the  behaviour  of  northern  Slav 
formations  only  too  often  later  on,  and  ultimately  there 
was  nothing  for  it  but  to  make  the  best  of  this  terrible 
phenomenon. 

Potiorek's  decisive  defeat  in  Serbia  continued  to  be  the 
Emperor's  bitterest  disappointment,  and  it  seemed  as  if 
he  would  never  recover.  He  was  the  only  man  immediately 
to  realize  all  the  consequences  of  that  great  military  disaster. 
On  Christmas  Day  Count  Paar  said  to  me  : 

"  The  Emperor  is  quite  certain  that  Italy  will  fall  upon 
us  very  shortly.  He  thinks  it  would  be  a  great  mistake  to 
harbour  any  illusions  on  the  point.     We've  had  the  worst 

342 


The  Old  Emperor  in  the  World  War 

of  it  against  Russia  and  Serbia.     Why  should  Italy  wait  to 
finish  us  off  for  good  and  all  ?  " 

It  was  known  in  Vienna  that  after  the  death  on  October 
1 6  of  the  Italian  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  San  Giuliano, 
who  had  always  supported  the  Triple  Alliance,  his  successor 
Sonnino  had  completely  abandoned  the  Central  Powers. 
As  early  as  December  9  he  put  forward  demands  for  ex- 
tensive cessions  of  territory  by  Austria-Hungary  as  the  price 
of  Italy's  continued  neutrality. 

Thereupon  Prince  Billow,  the  German  ambassador  in 
Rome  since  December  4,  191 4,  began  to  make  the  situation 
much  worse  for  the  Danube  Monarchy  by  urging  Count 
Berchtold  to  meet  Sonnino's  wishes  in  order  to  keep  Italy 
in  the  Triple  Alliance  at  any  price.  Count  Berchtold,  how- 
ever, could  not  even  take  up  the  matter  as  the  Emperor  was 
furious  at  the  attitude  of  Germany,  and  would  not  even 
hear  of  such  proposals.  Again  and  again  he  declared  that  he 
would  rather  go  down  in  honour  than  barter  away,  except  as 
a  last  resort,  ancient  territories  bequeathed  to  him  by  his 
ancestors. 

In  the  mental  torment  which  was  the  offspring  of  his 
enormous  responsibilities  the  old  Emperor  spent  a  joyless 
Christmas  at  Schonbrunn,  and  not  even  the  presence  of  his 
daughters  and  some  of  their  children  could  do  anything  to 
cheer  him  up.  Frau  Schratt  told  me  subsequently  that  in 
his  despair  the  Emperor  had  often  cried  : 

"  Oh,  if  Christmas  were  only  over !  I  could  stop 
thinking  how  jolly  it  used  to  be  in  the  old  days  at  Wallsee  !  " 

Meanwhile  the  war  raged  on  and  there  was  violent  fighting 
for  Cracow  and  in  the  Carpathians,  which  the  Russian  armies 
were  anxious  to  have  behind  them.  On  March  22,  191 5, 
they  succeeded  in  forcing  the  fortress  of  Przemysl  to  capitu- 
late through  hunger  and  thus  securing  the  San  sector. 

Men  may  think  as  they  like  about  the  fall  of  Przemysl. 
It  will  certainly  always  remain  an  enigma  that  a  fortress  of  its 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

strength  and  importance  should  have  been  supplied  with 
stores  for  three  months  only,  so  that  it  was  soon  lost  without 
completely  fulfilling  the  task  assigned  to  it.  The  Emperor 
was  utterly  dissatisfied  with  the  explanation  immediately 
given  by  the  General  Staff,  and  his  original  want  of  confidence 
in  the  army  leaders  was  considerably  intensified.  He  began 
to  make  no  secret  of  his  wish  that  the  whole  army  should  be 
placed  unreservedly  under  German  command. 

This  wish  of  the  old  sovereign  was  certainly  quite  natural, 
for  the  achievements  of  the  Austro-Hungarian  troops — with 
the  exception  of  the  cases  of  treachery  and  desertion  among 
the  northern  Slav  regiments — had  not  merely  been  beyond 
all  praise  but  in  many  cases  so  superhuman  as  to  put  even  the 
heroic  deeds  of  former  times  into  the  shade.  The  very  in- 
efficiency of  the  leadership  and  the  excessive  strain  to  which 
the  men  were  usually  put  were  proof  positive  how  splendid 
they  were.  If  it  had  been  otherwise,  they  would  have  been 
demoralized  in  a  very  short  space  of  time.  I  shall  always 
remember  a  remark  which  my  friend  the  Bavarian  General 
Pecht  made  to  me  in  the  spring  of  191 5  : 

"  I  can't  imagine  better  men  or  better  fighters  than  the 
Austro-Hungarian  troops.  You  could  conquer  the  world 
with  them  if  they  were  properly  led.  Unfortunately 
they're  not  !  " 

Yet  they  were  certainly  well  led  when,  side  by  side  with 
the  Germans,  they  passed  from  the  Gorlice-Tarnow  sector 
in  that  great  offensive  which  at  the  end  of  May,  191 5,  shook 
the  Russian  front,  rolled  it  up,  and  in  the  course  of  the  early 
summer  inflicted  a  shattering  defeat  on  the  armies  of  the  Czar. 

The  Emperor's  views  to  which  I  have  referred  explained 
the  fact  that  the  offensive  was  started  in  the  angle  of  Gorlice. 
The  Emperor  supported  the  efforts  to  secure  the  control  of 
the  whole  operations  for  the  Germans.  In  that  way  alone 
would  this  campaign  lead  to  a  decisive  victory  over  the  Russian 
armies. 

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The  Old  Emperor  in  the  World  War 

The  whole  population  of  the  Danube  Monarchy  was  at 
once  full  of  joy  and  confidence  and  in  the  capital  it  seemed 
as  if  the  exultant  jubilation  would  never  end.  Its  echoes 
were  heard  in  our  office  at  Schonbrunn  and  great  was  our 
enthusiasm. 

But  there  was  one  who  absolutely  refused  to  allow  himself 
to  be  carried  away  and  indeed  obstinately  refused  to  share 
the  national  satisfaction.     It  was  Count  Paar. 

I  was  extremely  surprised  at  his  attitude  and  could  not 
help  asking  him  why  he  showed  no  pleasure  at  this  great 
and  decisive  victory.  The  old  General  shook  his  head  and 
replied  : 

"  You've  to  look  further  ahead.  This  is  only  the  begin- 
ning. This  victory,  the  scale  of  which  I  don't  dispute,  is 
taking  us  further  and  further  from  peace,  though  nothing 
else  matters  for  us  but  peace.  Our  enemies  are  too  numerous 
and  too  strong.  Who  knows  if  we  shall  be  able  to  hold  our 
own  to  the  end  ?  The  longer  the  war  continues — and  the 
effect  of  the  present  victory  is  to  postpone  the  end  for  a 
considerable  period — the  more  exhausted  shall  we  be  when 
fighting  ceases,  and  the  harder  will  be  the  enemy's  conditions, 
unless  fortune  favours  us  in  a  way  we  can  hardly  expect. 
If  she  does  not  the  very  existence  of  the  Monarchy  may 
be  at  stake. 

"  Suppose  the  Russians  had  swiftly  advanced  and  reached 
Budapest.  We  should  have  had  peace  at  once,  if  only  because 
no  other  alternative  was  open  to  us.  Surely  even  that  peace 
would  have  been  a  better  one  than  the  peace  we  may  get 
in  two,  three  or  even  four  years  unless  we  win  all  along  the 
line.  Yet  I  can't  bring  myself  to  believe  in  this  last  possi- 
bility.    It  seems  to  me  too  improbable  !  " 

I  was  amazed  at  this  line  of  reasoning,  and,  in  fact,  rather 
disliked  Count  Paar  for  it.  At  that  time  I  did  not  see  that 
it  was  only  the  fruits  of  the  old  General's  greater  experience. 
For  the  operation  in  which  the  Russian  front  had  been  broken 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

through  and  rolled  up  had  proceeded  with  surprising  speed 
and  smoothness. 

While  the  Emperor  proudly  followed  these  operations  he 
was  a  prey  to  the  greatest  anxiety  on  account  of  events  on  the 
south-western  frontier  of  his  empire. 

As  I  have  already  said,  at  the  end  of  1914  Italy  was  openly 
inclining  towards  the  western  powers,  as  she  regarded  the 
failures  of  the  Austro-Hungarian  armies  in  Galicia  and  Serbia 
as  a  sure  sign  of  a  rapid  collapse  of  the  Danube  Monarchy. 
The  Emperor  would  not  hear  of  the  Italian  Foreign  Minister 
Sonnino's  demands  that  certain  territories  should  be  im- 
mediately ceded,  though  Germany  put  the  greatest  pressure 
on  him.  Even  a  last  desperate  effort  by  General  Prince  Wedel 
sent  specially  to  the  old  monarch  by  the  German  Emperor, 
was  entirely  without  result. 

This  difficult  situation  resulted  in  the  resignation  of  the 
Foreign  Minister,  Count  Berchtold,  on  January  13,  191 5. 
He  had  had  time  to  witness  the  hopeless  bankruptcy  of  all  his 
political  combinations. 

That  undoubtedly  somewhat  incompetent  statesman, 
who  could  not  always  be  taken  seriously,  was  succeeded  by  the 
dull  bureaucrat,  Baron  von  Burian.  It  was  certainly  not  a 
particularly  happy  choice,  if  only  because  Burian  was  regarded 
by  all  who  knew  him  as  uncommonly  slow-minded  and  there- 
fore incapable  of  grasping  a  rapidly  changing  situation. 
He  was  the  last  man  the  Emperor  really  needed,  as  he  was  now 
anxious  that  the  new  minister's  first  task  should  be  to  recognize 
when  any  chance  of  peace  presented  itself  and  exploit  the 
opportunity  at  once. 

Burian  considered  Sonnino's  conditions  very  carefully  and 
partially  accepted  them  on  March  9.  On  March  27  he 
made  an  even  better  offer.  Count  Paar  told  me  that  this 
had  been  without  the  Emperor's  knowledge.  On  April  6 
Sonnino  demanded  the  immediate  surrender  of  the  Tyrol 
as  far  as  the  Brenner,  the  whole  of  Austrian  Friuli  and  several 

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The  Old  Emperor  in  the  World  War 

Dalmatian  islands.  He  also  required  that  Trieste  should  be 
made  an  independent  free  state  and  that  Austria-Hungary 
should  renounce  all  interest  in  Albania.  When  Burian 
reported  this  to  Francis  Joseph,  in  accordance  with  what  he 
considered  his  duty,  the  sovereign  finally  rejected  the  out- 
rageous demand  out  of  hand. 

Thereupon  Italy  joined  France,  England  and  Russia  on 
April  25.  On  May  4  she  denounced  the  Triple  Alliance,  and 
on  May  23  declared  war  on  Austria-Hungary  after  certain 
further  negotiations,  chiefly  conducted  by  Germany,  had 
come  to  nought. 

In  view  of  this  eventuality,  which  had  been  foreseen  in  the 
early  months  of  the  year,  such  few  Austro-Hungarian  forma- 
tions as  could  be  made  available  were  sent  to  the  Italian 
frontier  during  the  spring.  They  were  commanded  by 
General  Dankl  in  the  Tyrol,  Rohr  in  Carinthia,  and  Boroevic  in 
the  Isonzo  sector,  while  the  Archduke  Eugene  was  appointed 
commander-in-chief. 

The  first  blow  in  the  war  with  Italy  was  delivered  by  the 
Austro-Hungarian  fleet  under  Admiral  Haus,  its  brilliant 
commander.  During  the  night  following  the  declaration  of 
war  it  undertook  a  bold  and  successful  operation  against  the 
Italian  coast  from  Venice  to  Barletta,  which  was  freely  bom- 
barded, while  aircraft  bombed  Ancona  and  the  arsenal  at 
Venice.  This  blow  secured  Austria-Hungary  the  control  of 
the  Adriatic  for  some  time  to  come.  The  Emperor's  navy 
had  shown  that  the  spirit  of  Tegetthof  was  still  alive  and 
could  inspire  the  greatest  feats. 

At  the  end  of  May  the  Italian  army,  under  General  Count 
Cadorna,  began  to  attack  the  Archduke  Eugene's  lines  of 
defence  in  greatly  superior  force.  Its  principal  object  was  to 
break  through  the  Isonzo  front.  The  first  great  Italian 
offensive  lasted  until  June  12,  the  second  from  the  end  of  June 
to  the  middle  of  July ;  the  third  came  in  October,  and  the 
fourth  lasted  from  the  middle  of  November  to  the  middle  of 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

December,  191 5.  All  four  resulted  in  nothing  but  trifling 
local  successes.  The  main  positions  remained  firmly  in  the 
hands  of  the  Archduke  Eugene's  troops. 

The  Emperor  now  appeared  fully  justified  in  his  resolute 
refusal  to  surrender  any  territory  to  Italy  as  the  price  of  her 
continued  neutrality,  especially  as  the  defensive  successes  in 
the  south-west  were  accompanied  by  promising  offensive 
triumphs  in  the  north-east. 

On  June  3  German  and  Austro-Hungarian  troops 
recovered  Przemysl.  The  Russians  were  driven  from  the 
lower  San,  the  Visnia,  Sieniava  and  Jaroslav,  and  then  they 
lost  Lemberg. 

It  was  with  considerable  misgiving  that  Count  Paar  now 
ventured  to  suggest  to  the  overworked  old  Emperor  that  he 
should  take  a  holiday  and  visit  Ischl,  at  any  rate  for  a  few  weeks. 
Francis  Joseph,  however,  rejected  the  proposal  quite  angrily 
and  would  not  even  listen  to  the  idea  of  removing  to  the  Villa 
of  Hermes  in  the  Tiergarten  at  Lainz,  where  he  had  enjoyed 
himself  so  thoroughly  four  years  before.  Nothing  could 
bring  him  from  his  hard  work  at  his  desk  at  Schonbrunn. 

It  was  in  these  exciting  days  at  the  beginning  of  May 
that  I  was  promoted  Major-General.  Even  with  my  new 
rank  I  remained  at  my  old  post  and  all  that  happened  was 
that  my  official  title  was  changed  to  "  General,  attached  for 
service  with  the  Imperial  Aides-de-Camp's  department." 

In  July  the  armies  of  the  Central  Powers  in  Galicia  swerved 
sharply  northwards  and  formed  three  great  army  groups, 
Hindenburg's  on  the  left  wing,  Prince  Leopold  of  Bavaria's 
in  the  centre  and  Mackensen's  on  the  right  wing.  All  the 
Russian  armies  between  the  Vistula  and  the  Bug  were  to  be 
enveloped.  Hindenburg  advanced  into  Kurland  and  seized 
the  crossings  of  the  Narev.  Prince  Leopold  captured  Warsaw 
on  August  5  and  Mackensen's  troops  stormed  Ivangorod. 
On  August  20  Novo  Georgievsk  was  captured  and  on  August 
t6  the  great  fortress  of  Brest  Litovsk  itself.     The  next  day 

34S 


The  Old  Emperor  in  the  World  War 

Olita  fell,  on  August  31  Lutsk,  on  September  2  Grodno, 
while  on  September  19  the  Germans  entered  Vilna.  The 
best  proof  of  the  magnitude  of  these  successes  is  that  on 
September  5  the  Grand  Duke  Nicholas,  hitherto  generalissimo 
of  the  Russian  army,  was  removed  from  his  post  and  the  Czar 
Nicholas  II.  assumed  supreme  command — nominally  at  any 
rate — of  the  Russian  armies,  which  were  everywhere  in 
retreat. 

Francis  Joseph  could  now  breathe  rather  more  freely  in 
his  palace  at  Schonbrunn.  Once  more  great  days  were  dawn- 
ing for  the  old  monarch,  and  he  gradually  threw  off  his 
fatalistic  melancholy.  In  his  heart  he  cherished  bright  hopes 
for  the  future.  The  Emperor  was  almost  unrecognizable 
in  those  days.  He  was  very  nearly  jovial  and  everything 
once  more  came  quite  easily  to  him. 

There  was  something  else  which  confirmed  him  in  his 
optimistic  mood.  On  September  2  a  mixed  deputation 
of  Hungarians  and  Croatians,  headed  by  Count  Tisza,  was 
received  in  audience.  It  came  to  assure  the  Emperor  that 
now  all  differences  between  the  eastern  and  western  halves 
of  the  Empire  had  been  removed  and  that  all  the  nations  of 
that  Empire  had  only  one  aim,  to  preserve  and  protect  their 
common  Fatherland.  The  Emperor  received  this  deputation 
with  quite  special  satisfaction. 

Unfortunately  the  course  of  events  showed  that  the 
assurances  were  but  vain  words,  for  when  the  shortage  of  food 
began  to  make  itself  felt  Hungary  was  unprecedentedly  selfish 
and  practically  closed  her  frontiers  while  the  people  of  Austria 
suffered  the  pangs  of  starvation.  This  behaviour  was  not 
the  least  of  the  causes  of  that  defeatism  which  led  to  the 
collapse  and  dissolution  of  the  Hapsburg  Empire. 

The  war  continued.  Bulgaria  threw  in  her  lot  with  the 
Central  Powers  after  Turkey  had  shown  a  wise  and  diplomatic 
magnanimity  in  ceding  to  her  on  September  3,  1915,  the 
territory  she  required  for  the  completion  of  the  railway  to 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

her  port  of  Dedeagatch.     An  offensive  on  a  large  scale  against 
Serbia  could  now  be  mounted. 

Bulgaria  mobilized  on  September  23.  On  October  5 
she  rejected  the  Russian  ultimatum  which  forbade  her  to  join 
the  enemies  of  the  Slav  cause,  and  on  October  14  she  declared 
war  on  Serbia,  as  Serbian  troops  had  crossed  the  Bulgarian 
frontier  near  Kiistendil  and  commenced  hostilities. 

As  the  Serbians  had  remained  inactive  since  the  end  of 
1 914,  and  the  Russians  had  suffered  heavy  defeats  in  the 
summer  of  191 5,  London,  Paris  and  St.  Petersburg  addressed 
urgent  summonses  to  Belgrade  to  relieve  the  burden  on  the 
Russian  armies  by  invading  Hungary.  The  Central  Powers 
anticipated  them,  however. 

To  save  the  hard-pressed  Turks  from  a  disaster  at  the 
Dardanelles,  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  the  Empei'or 
William  decided  on  a  decisive  and  immediate  operation  against 
Serbia,  notwithstanding  all  the  obstacles  presented  by  the 
tremendous  demands  on  the  German  and  Austro-Hungarian 
armies  in  the  north-east,  the  Monarchy's  exhausting  struggle 
with  Italy  and  the  great  offensive  which  the  English  and 
French  were  then  preparing  in  the  west. 

Under  the  supreme  command  of  Field-Marshal  von 
Mackensen  an  Austro-Hungarian  army,  under  General  von 
Kovess,  was  concentrated  west  and  north  of  Belgrade,  and  a 
German  under  General  von  Gallwitz  east  of  Semendria. 
The  Bulgarian  army,  commanded  by  General  Bodjadjieff, 
was  to  cross  the  Timok  and  press  forward  to  join  its  allies, 
while  another  Bulgarian  army  under  General  Todonoff 
advanced  through  Uskub  and  Prisrend,  and  cut  off  the 
Serbians'  line  of  retreat  to  Albania. 

Field-Marshal  von  Mackensen  established  his  head- 
quarters in  Temesvar.  Before  he  took  up  his  residence  there 
he  presented  himself  to  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  in 
Vienna.  He  was  received  with  every  possible  sign  of  honour, 
stayed    at   the   Hofburg   as   the   Emperor's  guest,   and   the 

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The  Old  Emperor  in  the  World  War 

Emperor  gave  a  breakfast  in  his  honour  at  Schonbrunn.  The 
Field-Marshal  made  a  most  excellent  impression  upon  Francis 
Joseph,  who  rose  with  quite  unusual  warmth  and  ended  a 
little  speech  with  the  words : 

"  With  such  men  how  can  things  go  wrong  !  " 

As  he  uttered  the  words  the  Emperor  sighed.  He  was 
probably  thinking  of  Potiorek  and  others  who  had  certainly- 
been  inspired  by  the  best  intentions,  but  had  not  been  able 
to  translate  them  into  deeds. 

I  should  also  mention  the  fact  that  Field-Marshal  von 
Mackensen  celebrated  his  sixty-seventh  birthday  during  his 
visit  to  Vienna.  The  Emperor  took  advantage  of  the  occasion 
to  congratulate  the  General  before  luncheon  in  unusually 
warm  terms  in  the  presence  of  the  suite,  and  during  the  meal 
itself  he  proposed  a  toast  in  his  honour  after  clinking  glasses 
with  him. 

At  this  luncheon  the  Emperor  dropped  a  remark  which 
subsequently  gave  me  much  food  for  thought.  Mackensen 
happened  to  speak  about  Italy's  desertion  of  the  Central 
Powers  and  remarked  that  up  to  the  last  moment  everyone 
in  Germany  refused  to  believe  that  Italy  would  strike  her 
ancient  alUes  in  the  back  in  their  hour  of  peril. 

Francis  Joseph  replied  in  tones  of  resignation  that  perhaps 
Italy  could  not  have  acted  otherwise,  particularly  after 
England  had  ranged  herself  on  the  side  of  France  and  Russia. 
The  old  sovereign  went  on  to  refer  to  the  vital  fact  that  Italy 
— a  country  without  iron  and  coal  and  therefore  dependent 
upon  imports  from  foreign  countries,  particularly  England, 
for  these  indispensable  raw  materials — would  hardly  have 
been  able  to  ward  oflE  English  naval  attacks  and  raids  on  her 
long  coast  line.  The  Emperor  also  pointed  out  that  General 
PoUio,  the  former  Chief  of  the  Italian  General  Staff  and  a 
proved  supporter  of  the  Triple  Alliance,  had  frankly  and  openly 
said  when  military  agreements  were  under  discussion  that 
Italy  would  only  fight  side  by  side  with  her  aUies  if  England 

351 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

were  not  in  the  ranks  of  her  enemies.  In  the  latter  even- 
tuality it  would  be  a  case  oi  force  majeure  for  Italy,  which  she 
would  have  to  recognize. 

The  Emperor  concluded  his  remarks  with  the  words  : 

"  We  must  not  grudge  even  our  enemies  our  admiration 
when  they  deserve  it.  King  Victor  Emmanuel  III.  seems 
to  me  entirely  worthy  of  it.  As  soon  as  war  breaks  out  he 
hands  over  the  conduct  of  all  state  business  to  Duke  Thomas 
of  Genoa  and  regarding  himself  solely  as  Commander-in- 
Chief  he  joins  his  army  and  never  leaves  it,  even  for  a  day. 
That  is  the  proper  thing  to  do.  No  other  course  is  open  to 
a  sovereign  in  the  prime  of  life  !  " 

Mackensen  nodded  approvingly  and  added  : 

"  Yes,  our  Emperor  did  the  same  !  " 

The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  sighed  deeply  and  said  : 

"  If  only  /  could  have  been  with  my  army,  too  !  But 
I'm  so  old,  much  too  old !  It  must  be  left  to  my  successor 
if  the  war  lasts  long  enough." 

I  was  often  sorry  afterwards  that  the  Archduke  Charles 
had  not  been  present  at  this  conversation.  When  he  became 
Emperor  he  frequently  visited  the  field  army,  but  only  for 
a  few  days  at  a  time,  and  then  hurried  away  as  fast  as  he  could 
to  Laxenburg,  Reichenau  or  Baden.  I  often  heard  remark- 
able and  by  no  means  complimentary  comments  in  all 
quarters.  Even  the  facts  that  in  January,  1917,  General 
Headquarters  was  transferred  to  Baden,  quite  near  Vienna, 
and  that  the  Emperor  Charles  went  there  daily  from  Laxen- 
burg and  subsequently  settled  in  Baden  itself  with  his  family 
did  not  silence  the  voice  of  criticism.  At  the  last  he  was 
associated  with  General  Headquarters  by  public  opinion 
and  his  removal  to  Baden  itself  contributed  materially  to 
diminish  his  prestige,  which  had  already  suffered  very  con- 
siderably. 

After  the  overthrow  of  Serbia  the  Emperor  William  II., 
who  had  not  seen  Francis  Joseph  since  the  outbreak  of  war, 

353 


The  Old  Emperor  in  the  World  War 

paid  us  a  visit,  and  appeared  at  Schonbrunn  on  November 
29,  1915. 

The  meeting,  which  had  been  awaited  with  interest 
and  excitement,  took  a  rather  peculiar  course.  At  bottom 
it  was  to  some  extent  a  disappointment.  Perhaps  too  great 
hopes  had  been  built  upon  it.  Some  of  us — Count  Paar  for 
one — ^wanted  to  regard  it  as  heralding  the  end  of  the  war. 
Unfortunately,  it  had  no  such  result. 

Several  days  before  the  arrival  of  the  German  Emperor 
there  was  a  certain  atmosphere  of  uneasiness  at  Schonbrunn, 
which  obviously  emanated  from  the  old  Emperor  himself. 
Francis  Joseph  was  uncomfortable  because  he  had  a  feeling 
that  his  fighting  services  had  not  quite  come  up  to  what 
might  have  been  expected  of  them.  Perhaps  he  was  afraid 
of  reproaches,  which  he  would  have  felt  the  more  keenly 
because  they  were  certain  to  be  fairly  well-disguised  before 
they  reached  his  ears. 

This  was  the  first  visit  of  the  German  Emperor  to  Vienna 
during  the  war.  It  was  also  to  be  his  last  meeting  with  the 
Emperor  Francis  Joseph,  who  had  always  been  a  father  and 
friend  to  him.  The  Emperor  William's  visit  to  Schonbrunn 
was  essentially  a  private  one,  and  every  kind  of  ceremony 
and  festivity  was  rigorously  excluded. 

On  this  visit  I  only  had  an  occasional  glimpse  of  the 
German  Emperor.  He  struck  me  as  alert,  vigorous  and 
jovial,  though  he  had  aged  remarkably. 

After  the  small  banquet  given  in  William  II. 's  honour. 
Count  Paar  told  me  that  he  had  found  the  German  Emperor 
greatly  changed.  On  this  occasion  he  had  not  been  in  his 
element.  His  lively  conversation,  occasional  outbursts  of 
merriment  and  air  of  confidence  seemed  merely  simulated, 
put  on  to  conceal  his  cares  and  anxieties,  not  to  say  depression. 
In  their  conversation  the  two  Emperors  gave  the  impression 
of  a  certain  off-handedness,  which  only  gradually  gave  place 
to  the  old  confidence.     Count  Paar  added  that  the  Emperor 

353  23 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

William  struck  him  as  being  certainly  not  quite  sure  of  his 
cause,  and  concluded  with  the  words : 

"  I'm  absolutely  certain  that  the  German  Emperor 
personally,  like  our  own,  is  anxious  to  bring  the  war  to  an 
end,  and  the  sooner  the  better.  I  may  be  wrong,  but  I  can't 
resist  some  such  feeling." 

This  characteristic  conclusion  of  Count  Paar  was  cer- 
tainly not  based  on  what  he  casually  saw  and  heard,  but 
represented  the  result  of  close  and  continuous  observation 
during  the  German  Emperor's  last  visit  to  Schonbrunn. 

Count  Paar  had  also  sounded  the  members  of  William  II. 's 
suite  as  to  whether  it  would  not  be  advisable  to  come  forward 
with  proposals  for  a  just  peace  by  understanding,  in  view 
of  the  unexpectedly  favourable  military  situation.  They 
angrily  rejected  all  such  ideas,  and  said  that  Falkenhayn, 
then  Chief  of  the  General  Staff  of  the  German  Field  Army? 
had  more  great  and  amazing  things  in  store. 

Hence  the  two  sides  to  the  German  Emperor's  attitude. 
He  was  obviously  longing  for  a  speedy  peace,  yet  could  not 
trust  himself  to  use  his  personal  authority  in  that  direction, 
as  the  influence  of  the  General  Staff  was  too  great  and,  in 
fact,  omnipotent  in  many  quarters.  Both  Emperors  already 
realized  that  things  were  not  really  well  with  us,  notwith- 
standing all  our  victories,  and  that  view  was  gaining  ground 
among  non-soldiers,  while  many  generals  absolutely  refused 
to  see  that  even  Napoleon  "  conquered  himself  to  death." 

Thus  no  peace  resulted.  Neither  of  the  two  Emperors 
dared  call  the  other's  attention  to  the  imminent  necessity  of 
bringing  the  war  to  an  end  for  fear  of  being  regarded  as 
pessimistic.  That  was  particularly  true  of  the  Emperor 
Francis  Joseph. 

Be  that  as  it  may,  the  Christmas  of  191 5  was  a  far 
brighter  affair  than  that  of  the  preceding  year.  The  Emperor 
had  once  more  gathered  his  family  around  him,  and  now  felt 
happier,    even    at    Schonbrunn.     There    had   been  an    idea 

354 


The  Old  Emperor  in  the  World  War 

of  persuading  him  to  get  a  little  change  from  his  monotonous 
life  by  returning  to  his  old  practice  of  spending  the  Christmas 
holidays  at  Wallsee  with  the  Archduchess  Marie  Valerie  and 
the  Archduke  Franz  Salvator.  Dr.  von  Kerzl,  the  Imperial 
physician,  considered  it  particularly  necessary  as  the  Emperor 
was  overburdened  with  work  aU  day  at  Schonbrunn,  and  it 
seemed  quite  impossible  for  him  to  have  quiet  intervals, 
however  badly  he  needed  them.  A  further  reason  for  the 
eagerness  to  get  him  away  from  Schonbrunn  for  several  days 
was  the  necessity  for  doing  some  decorating  in  his  apartments, 
which  were  no  longer  all  that  they  ought  to  be  after  uninter- 
rupted use  for  a  year  and  a  half.  But  the  old  Emperor 
would  not  hear  of  a  holiday.  He  was  quite  angry,  and  replied 
to  what  was  only  a  well-meant  suggestion  with  the  words : 

"  Who  ever  heard  of  a  holiday  in  such  serious  times,  when 
I'm  faced  with  the  most  important  decisions  from  hour  to 
hour  !  I  should  lose  my  self-respect  if  I  entertained  the  idea 
of  leaving  everything  unattended  here  for  the  sake  of  my  own 
pleasure." 

The  Emperor  therefore  remained  at  Schonbrunn,  which, 
in  view  of  his  advanced  age,  was  very  bad  for  his  already 
delicate  health.  Further,  his  apartments  were  on  the 
northern  front  of  Schonbrunn  Palace,  and  almost  always  in 
shadow,  so  that  in  the  cold  season  particularly  they  were 
anything  but  a  healthy  place  of  residence. 

From  Serbia  General  von  Kovess  and  his  army  pene- 
trated into  Montenegro.  On  January  lo,  191 6,  several  units 
of  this  army,  supported  by  the  Austro-Hungarian  fleet, 
stormed  Mount  Lovcen,  which  rises  1,700  metres  straight 
out  of  the  sea  and  commands  the  Bay  of  Cattaro.  On 
January  17  the  Emperor's  troops  entered  Cettinje.  In  a 
personal  letter  to  Francis  Joseph,  King  Nicholas,  fleeing 
to  France,  asked  for  peace.  His  son  Mirko  offered  to  capi- 
tulate unconditionally,  and  the  Montenegrin  forces  laid  down 
their  arms. 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

But  all  the  good  news  from  the  front  could  not  banish  the 
deep  depression  which,  exactly  on  New  Year's  Day,  191 6 
(curiously  enough),  succeeded  the  Emperor's  more  cheerful 
mood  of  the  previous  months.  We  were  extremely  sur- 
prised, particularly  when  the  old  sovereign  merely  replied 
to  King  Nicholas'  request  for  peace  with  the  words : 

"  Another  old  man !  His  fate  fills  me  with  genuine 
regret.     Hodie  mihi,  eras  tibi." 

The  Emperor  was  also  exceedingly  sorry  that  notwith- 
standing the  swift  success  of  the  Balkan  campaign  Salonica 
had  not  been  reached,  and  in  all  probability  never  would 
be  reached.  He  personally  regarded  the  capture  of  Salonica 
and  its  harbour — a  sea-gate  of  the  greatest  importance  to  the 
Central  Powers  who  were  completely  isolated — as  the  test 
of  success  in  the  operations  which  had  begun  so  well  in  the 
south-east. 

It  may  be  that  this  feeling  was  also  inspired  by  a  con- 
sideration which  had  weighed  with  the  Emperor  ever  since 
1878.  He  frankly  confessed  that  unless  Salonica  was  in  the 
possession  of  his  own  and  his  allies'  armies  the  overrunning  of 
Serbia,  Montenegro  and  Albania  would  remain  a  highly 
problematical  gain. 

"  A  rapid  advance  of  an  enemy  from  Salonica  would 
easily  make  it  fruitless,"  he  said.|  "  We  must  always  be  on 
the  watch  for  some  such  operation  by  our  opponents.  Quite 
probably  it  will  come  at  the  very  moment  when  we  are 
attacked  simultaneously  on  all  our  fronts.  In  such  a  case 
it  might  prove  fatal  to  us !  " 

The  Emperor  never  shook  off  that  tormenting  notion. 
Did  he  suspect  in  the  last  months  of  his  life  that — as  actually 
happened  in  191 8 — the  death-blow  to  the  Monarchy  would 
be  delivered  from  Salonica  ? 

A  few  weeks  afterwards  the  latest  Austro-Hungarian 
Field-Marshal,  the  Tsar  Ferdinand  of  Bulgaria,  appeared 
in   Vienna,    and   had   several   long   conversations   with    the 

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The  Old  Emperor  in  the  World  War 

Emperor.  Both  rulers  were  determined  to  pave  the  way 
for  peace,  but  for  the  time  being  Germany  would  hear  nothing 
of  it  as  the  great  offensive  against  Verdun  had  begun,  and 
decisive  results  were  expected  of  it,  even  in  the  political  field. 

With  that  before  his  eyes.  General  Conrad  was  not  going 
to  be  behind  in  attempting  a  great  blow  on  his  own.  Of 
course  it  could  only  be  against  Italy.  For  this  operation, 
which  was  to  start  from  the  Tyrol  and  had  been  Conrad's 
dream  for  decades,  not  only  infantry,  but  artillery,  parti- 
cularly heavy  artillery,  was  withdrawn  from  the  eastern 
front  and  sent  south.  In  the  course  of  this  movement  the 
1st  Regiment  of  Tyrolese  Kaiser jager  passed  through 
Vienna,  and  the  Emperor,  who  was  also  an  officer  of  that  unit, 
reviewed  it  in  the  park  at  Schonbrunn.  He  then  gathered 
the  officers  round  him,  thanked  them  for  their  splendid 
deeds  in  battle,  and  sent  them  off  with  his  heartfelt  wishes 
for  their  future  success. 

General  von  Conrad  had  the  realization  of  a  private  plan 
at  heart  as  well  as  that  of  his  military  plans.  I  only  mention 
it  here  because  it  cost  the  Emperor  many  unpleasant  hours. 
In  February,  191 6,  Conrad's  mother  died.  The  general 
had  been  a  widower  for  very  many  years,  and  shortly  after- 
wards he  asked  the  Emperor's  consent  to  his  second  marriage. 
To  a  man  like  the  Emperor,  who  shared  the  prejudices  of 
former  days,  such  a  scheme,  at  so  short  an  interval,  did  not 
appeal.  He  thought  it  particularly  inappropriate  that  the 
Chief  of  the  General  Staff  should  be  busying  himself  with 
private  matters  at  the  very  crisis  of  the  war.  It  was  only 
after  insistent  intervention  by  the  Chief  of  the  Military 
Cabinet  that  the  sovereign's  opposition  was  overcome. 
This  dispute  hardly  contributed  to  strengthen  Conrad's 
reputation  with  the  Emperor,  and  everywhere  people  began 
to  say  that  his  retirement  was  imminent.  Officers  in  imme- 
diate touch  with  the  Commander-in-Chief,  the  Archduke 
Frederick,  suggested  that  before  long  we  might  have  to  deal 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

with  a  new  Chief  of  the  General  Staff.  Even  the  names 
of  the  candidates  for  the  post  were  given  :  Generals  Boroevic, 
Blasius  Schemua  and  Alfred  Krauss. 

Matters  turned  out  otherwise.  It  certainly  amazed  me 
to  note  how  swiftly  Conrad's  marriage  utterly  undermined 
his  popularity  with  the  public.  At  the  beginning  he  had 
been  one  of  the  favourite  Austro-Hungarian  military  leaders. 
Great  hopes  had  been  set  upon  him,  and  his  work  com- 
manded genuine  confidence.  That  was  all  over  now, 
particularly  when  it  was  known  that  his  wife  had  accom- 
panied him  to  General  Headquarters,  and  there  become  a 
centre  of  social  attractions.  The  stream  of  adverse  criticism^ 
among  both  officers  and  civilians,  of  conditions  at  Head- 
quarters could  no  longer  be  dammed,  and  it  did  the  greatest 
harm  to  the  supreme  command,  whose  reputation,  in  any 
case,  was  not  too  secure. 

These  criticisms  gradually  went  so  far  that  one  day  the 
Deputy  Chief  of  the  Military  Cabinet,  Lieutenant-General 
von  Marterer  drafted  a  memorandum  for  the  Emperor's 
signature,  addressed  to  Field-Marshal  the  Archduke  Frederick, 
and  requiring  him  to  do  everything  in  his  power  to  remedy 
the  abuses  at  General  Headquarters,  which  were  exciting 
public  opinion.  After  careful  consideration  General  Bolfras 
decided  not  to  lay  the  document  before  the  Emperor,  but 
forwarded  it,  with  the  necessary  comments,  straight  to  the 
Chief  of  the  General  Staff.  He  did  not  want  to  bother  the 
Emperor  in  such  unpleasant  matters.  Of  course,  it  meant 
that  the  effect  was  lost  from  the  start. 

As  General  von  Bolfras  had  rightly  anticipated  from  the 
beginning,  Conrad's  projected  offensive  from  the  eastern 
frontier  of  Tyrol  in  March  came  to  nothing,  mainly  owing 
to  the  bad  weather  in  the  mountains.  The  Italians  retaliated 
in  the  middle  of  March  with  their  fifth  great  offensive  against 
the  Isonzo  front.     It  failed,  like  the  others. 

It  was  not  before  May  15  that  Conrad's  attack  from  the 

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The  Old  Emperor  in  the  World  War 

mountains  of  Tyrol  could  begin.  In  the  first  fortnight  it 
produced  local  successes  in  which  the  20th  Corps,  under  the 
command  of  the  Archduke  Charles,  played  a  glorious  part. 
At  the  beginning  of  June,  however,  the  operation  had  suddenly 
to  be  broken  off,  as  General  Brussiloff,  who  had  been  ap- 
pointed the  Russian  Commander-in-Chief,  took  the  offensive 
on  the  Styr  and  Strypa  on  a  broad  front  with  huge  masses 
of  troops  he  had  collected  in  the  winter  and  spring  and 
equipped  with  American  and  Japanese  war  material.  The 
army  of  the  Archduke  Joseph  Ferdinand  was  driven  west 
of  Dubno  and  Luck  with  enormous  losses.  It  is  true  that 
the  German  Generals  Bothmer  and  Linsingen  held  their 
positions  after  a  furious  struggle,  but  the  Austro-Hungarian 
troops  continued  to  be  driven  back  in  disorder  and  gave  way 
in  the  Bukowina  also,  so  that  the  Russians  recaptured 
Czernowitz  and  even  Kolomea.  The  demoralization  which 
once  more  spread  through  the  Austro-Hungarian  army  was 
terrible. 

The  armies  on  the  eastern  front  were  immediately  re- 
grouped. Hindenburg  took  command  from  the  Baltic  to 
Tarnopol,  where  he  joined  hands  with  the  Archduke  Charles, 
who  had  been  hastily  recalled  from  the  Tyrol  and  given  the 
command  of  a  longer  front.  The  change  was  not  greatly 
for  the  better,  as  the  Russians  pressed  on  relentlessly,  took 
Stanislau  and  Delatyn  and  could  not  be  brought  to  a  stand- 
still until  they  reached  the  Carpathians. 

The  defeats  on  the  battlefield  in  the  north-east  brought 
the  Emperor  to  the  verge  of  despair,  even  though  he  had 
always  feared  that  the  situation  might  develop  as  it 
did. 

If  he  had  not  been  so  impersonal  a  sovereign  for  so  long 
he  could  have  simply  used  his  own  authority  to  forbid  Conrad's 
attack  on  Italy,  particularly  as  both  the  Archduke  Eugene 
and  General  Boroevic,  the  tried  and  trusted  defender  of  the 
Isonzo    front,    had    vehemently    protested    against   it    and 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

given  sound  and  urgent  reasons  for  their  views.  The  com- 
manders on  the  north-eastern  front,  including  the  Archduke 
Joseph  Ferdinand,  had  also  objected  to  the  transfer  of  troops 
and  artillery  to  the  Tyrol,  pointing  out  that  the  Russians 
were  concentrating  enormous  forces  and  that  an  attack  was 
to  be  expected,  the  date  of  which  could  not  be  foretold. 

Conrad's  standing  reply  to  these  protests  was  that  Italy 
would  be  decisively  beaten  before  the  Russians  were  ready, 
so  that  the  reinforcements  required  to  hold  the  north-eastern 
front  could  be  on  the  spot  in  time.  His  calculations  would 
have  proved  accurate,  perhaps,  if  the  Tyrol  offensive  had 
begun  in  March  as  Conrad  had  intended  in  his  original 
scheme.  As  that  proved  impossible — for  very  practical  and 
obvious  reasons — and  the  offensive  against  Italy  only  began 
two  months  later,  the  whole  calculation  was  a  farce,  and  led 
to  that  disaster  which  possibly  robbed  the  Central  Powers 
of  their  chances  once  and  for  all. 

The  old  game  of  1914  was  played  over  again.  In  that  year 
it  was  a  question  of  beating  Serbia  first  and  then  transferring 
the  troops  thus  released  to  meet  the  Russians.  In  191 4  the 
Austro-Hungarian  forces  were  beaten  both  by  the  Serbians 
and  the  Russians.  It  was  just  the  same  in  1916.  The 
Emperor  often  said  to  Count  Paar  about  this  time  : 

"  I  don't  understand  this  strategy  ;  it's  too  complicated 
for  me.  And  it's  poor  consolation  to  see  that  it  isn't  even 
successful !  " 

Of  course  it  was  not  strategy  at  all,  but  simply  tactics  ! 
Conrad  was  too  fond  of  applying  purely  tactical  principles 
and  judging  them  by  strategical  standards.  His  calculations 
went  wrong  once  more.  They  were  too  bold  because  they 
did  not  allow  for  any  margin  of  safety. 

A  remark  of  Montenuovo's  on  this  point  contains  a  con- 
siderable measure  of  truth.  He  thought  that  the  operations 
against  Italy  and  Russia  had  failed  because  Conrad  started 
from   the  assumption   that   nothing  would  happen  on   the 

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The  Old  Emperor  in  the  World  War 

eastern  front  during  the  spring  of  191 6.  This  promise  turned 
out  to  be  false.  According  to  Montenuovo,  it  should  have 
been  Conrad's  first  duty,  before  he  made  any  plans,  to  satisfy 
himself  of  the  real  condition  of  affairs.  "  He  ought  to  have 
gone  to  the  eastern  front  himself  and  got  into  personal  touch 
with  all  the  commanders  there.  If  he'd  done  so  he'd  have 
seen  that  it  was  directly  threatened,"  said  Prince  Monte- 
nuovo, hitting  the  nail  straight  on  the  head. 

Once  more  the  political  consequences  of  our  military 
reverses  were  revealed  with  amazing  speed.  For  some  time 
the  new  King  of  Rumania,  Ferdinand,  and  still  more  his 
influential  wife,  Marie,  had  made  no  secret  of  their  sympathies 
for  Russia  and  England,  while  the  Rumanian  intelligentsia 
had  always  looked  to  France  as  their  ideal.  It  was  thus 
hardly  surprising  that  we  had  not  long  to  wait  for  Rumania's 
declaration  of  war. 

The  threatening  military  peril  made  it  essential  to  take 
military  measures  against  Rumania,  and  one  of  the  more  ob- 
vious ones  was  an  attack  by  Bulgaria,  with  whom  Rumania 
had  a  long,  common  frontier.  When  it  came  to  making  the 
appropriate  arrangements  and  agreements  the  Bulgarian 
Generals  declared  categorically  that  under  no  circumstances 
would  Bulgarian  troops  be  placed  under  Austro-Hungarian 
commanders.  AppeaHng  ruthlessly  to  the  facts,  the  reason 
they  assigned  for  their  refusal  was  that  our  leadership  had 
been  discredited  by  the  experience  of  the  world  war,  and 
particularly  the  events  of  the  spring  and  summer  of  1916. 

As  I  have  said  before,  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  himself 
had  from  the  outset  had  little  confidence  in  his  army  com- 
manders, and  still  less  in  the  supreme  command,  whose,  in 
many  respects,  sHpshod  work  had  been  anything  but  to  his 
taste,  particularly  in  recent  months.  Yet  this  curt  refusal 
of  Bulgaria  was  a  terrible  grief  to  the  old  sovereign.  He 
had  grown  up  with  his  army  from  his  earliest  years,  and 
he  regarded  a  slight  upon  it  as  nothing  but  an  insult  to  his 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

own  person.  He  remarked  to  Count  Paar :  "  The  Bul- 
garians are  right,  only  too  right,  unfortunately.  But  it 
cuts  me  to  the  heart  that  it  should  be  so.  I  reproach  myself 
bitterly  now  for  not  having  put  my  northern  army,  too,  under 
German  command  last  year.  I  frequently  heard  that  even 
my  officers  would  have  liked  nothing  better." 

Although  the  Emperor  was  not  too  well-disposed  towards 
the  Chief  of  the  General  Staff  at  this  time  Conrad  succeeded 
once  more  in  preventing  the  proposal  of  a  single  command 
in  German  hands  from  taking  a  final  and  concrete  shape, 
although  the  Emperor  himself  had  desired  the  change  since 
1914. 

At  the  beginning  of  July,  191 6,  a  terrible  tornado  had 
suddenly  struck  Wiener-Neustadt  and  done  an  enormous 
amount  of  damage,  particularly  to  military  establishments. 

At  the  first  news  the  Emperor  gave  me  orders  first  thing 
next  morning  to  go  and  see  for  myself  what  had  happened 
and  bring  him  back  a  full  report.  When  I  returned  the  same 
evening  from  Wiener-Neustadt  I  reported  myself  at  once  to 
him. 

The  Emperor  looked  terribly  pale,  careworn  and  down- 
cast. He  told  me  to  sit  down  by  his  desk  and  listened  to  my 
detailed  account  of  the  occurrence  with  his  usual  patience. 
When  we  had  finished  discussing  it  he  began  to  speak  of  the 
general  situation  and  the  enormous  problems  facing  the 
Danube  Monarchy.  He  obviously  found  it  a  relief  to  speak 
his  mind.     As  he  ended  he  folded  his  hands  and  said  slowly  : 

"  Things  are  going  badly  with  us,  perhaps  worse  than  we 
suspect.  The  starving  people  can't  stand  much  more.  It 
remains  to  be  seen  whether  and  how  we  shall  get  through  the 
winter.  I  mean  to  end  the  war  next  spring  whatever  happens. 
I  carCt  let  my  Empire  go  to  hopeless  ruin  !  " 

When  I  told  Count  Paar  what  the  Emperor  had  said  he 
gave  me  another  special  reason  why  the  old  monarch  wanted 
to  end  the  war  at  any  cost  in  the  spring  of  191 7.     The  Em- 

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The  Old  Emperor  in  the  World  War 

peror  foresaw  that  the  intensified  submarine  warfare  on  which 
Germany  was  bent  would  sooner  or  later  drive  the  United 
States  of  America  into  the  arms  of  our  enemies.  He  was 
extremely  anxious  to  anticipate  that  eventuality,  for  he  con- 
sidered that  there  would  be  no  chance  of  even  a  tolerable 
peace  unless  the  North  American  Union,  a  fairly  unbiassed 
one,  anyhow  the  last  great  neutral,  conducted  the  negotiations 
as  she  had  done  eleven  years  before  on  the  occasion  of  the 
conclusion  of  hostilities  between  Russia  and  Japan,  when 
both  parties  had  been  satisfied. 

A  few  days  later  Frau  Schratt  told  me  that  the  Emperor 
had  frequently  spoken  to  her  in  the  same  sense  and  almost 
in  the  same  words.  He  was  now  absolutely  determined 
to  bring  peace,  cost  what  it  might. 

Subsequently,  I  often  heard  it  said  that  the  Emperoi 
Francis  Joseph  had  lived  and  reigned  too  long.  That  opinion 
seems  to  me  unsound  from  every  point  of  view.  Indeed, 
as  things  are  now,  the  old  Emperor  unquestionably  died  too 
soon.  If  he  had  only  lived  a  few  months  longer  he  would 
surely  have  brought  the  ancient  monarchy  safe  and  sound 
out  of  the  war,  at  any  rate  so  far  as  that  was  possible.  I 
cannot  wrench  myself  free  from  that  heartfelt  conviction. 
At  the  present  time  it  is  undoubtedly  shared  by  many  who 
knew  the  Emperor  intimately. 

Thus,  on  the  Emperor's  eighty-sixth  birthday,  on  August 
1 8,  all  of  us  were  a  prey  to  the  gloomiest  forebodings.  Early 
in  the  morning  a  solemn  mass  was  celebrated  in  the  chapel 
at  Schonbrunn.  It  was  the  last  in  honour  of  the  revered 
old  monarch.  In  company  with  the  Chief  of  the  Military 
Cabinet  I  was  present  at  the  great  luncheon  held  at  the 
Ministry  of  War.  The  note  of  tormenting  apprehension 
sounded  even  in  the  toast  in  which  the  War  Minister,  General 
Baron  von  Krobatin,  proposed  the  sovereign's  health.  All 
those  present  joined  enthusiastically  in  the  toast,  and  when 

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The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

the  band  struck  up  "  Gott  erhalte,"  "  Heil  dir  im  Sieges- 
kranz,"  "  Schumi  Maritza,"  and  the  Turkish  National 
Anthem  in  turn,  General  Krobatin  remarked  with  a  bitter- 
sweet smile  : 

"  If  our  enemies  celebrated  occasions  of  this  kind,  and 
their  band  had  to  play  the  National  Anthems  of  all  their 
allies,  it  would  take  them  more  than  an  hour  to  get  through." 

It  was  a  delicate  but  obvious  reference  to  the  extremely- 
difficult  situation  in  which  the  Central  Powers  found  them- 
selves. 

It  was  to  become  even  more  difficult.  The  defeats  of 
Okna,  Luck  and  Dubno  produced  that  overwhelming  politi- 
cal result  in  Bucharest  which  had  been  expected  as  much  in 
London,  Paris  and  Rome  as  in  St.  Petersburg. 

On  August  27  Rumania  declared  war  on  Austria-Hungary. 
To  increase  the  effect  of  this  step  the  formal  declaration  of 
war  on  Germany  by  Italy  was  issued  the  same  day.  It  had 
been  reserved  hitherto.  Rumania's  behaviour  really  surprised 
no  one  in  Vienna.  It  had  been  contemplated  ever  since  the 
death  of  King  Charles. 

In  Hungary  the  immediate  irruption  of  the  Rumanians 
into  eastern  Transylvania  and  their  occupation  of  Hermann- 
stadt  and  Cronstadt  produced  an  angry  outburst  both  against 
the  Government  and  the  General  Staff,  which  had  made  no 
kind  of  preparation  to  meet  the  Rumanian  invasion.  In  the 
Hungarian  Parliament  the  popular  fury  against  the  Minister- 
President  Count  Tisza  and  General  von  Conrad  found  over- 
whelming expression.  It  was  at  once  only  too  obvious  how 
little  sympathy  or  respect  both  the  Government  and  the 
military  leaders  commanded.  Count  Paar  put  the  vox 
populi  into  words,  though  they  certainly  went  too  far  : 

"  It  was  silly  of  Bolfras  to  keep  on  the  Chief  of  the  General 
Staff.  If  he'd  been  let  go  in  February  on  the  ground  of  his 
marriage  we'd  have  been  spared  the  scenes  of  the  last  few 
days,  and  quite  possibly  we'd  even  have  had  peace  by  now." 

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The  Old  Emperor  in  the  World  War 

Thanks  to  the  brilliant  leadership  of  Falkenhayn,  the 
allies  soon  succeeded  in  clearing  Hungary  and  overthrowing 
Rumania.  This  glorious  campaign,  a  triumphal  march 
almost  unparalleled,  forms  one  of  the  most  splendid  pages 
in  the  history  of  the  Central  Powers. 

The  Emperor  followed  the  first  phase  of  the  operations 
with  merely  fatalistic  resignation  to  the  will  of  God.  The 
burden  he  had  taken  on  aged  shoulders  on  June  28,  191 4, 
and  borne  with  rare  courage,  was  proving  itself  too  heavy 
for  the  sorely-tried  old  man.  To  all  the  disappointments, 
apprehensions  and  reverses  which  the  year  191 6  had  brought 
us  was  now  added  the  haunting  fear  that  the  daily  increasing 
embitterment  of  the  starving  population  might  break  all 
bounds  in  one  primeval  upheaval  and  reduce  all  the  efforts 
of  our  gallant  army  to  nought. 

The  cry  for  Parliament  to  be  summoned  became  louder 
and  louder,  and,  as  the  Council  of  Ministers  continued  to 
disregard  it,  popular  indignation  turned  against  the  Minister- 
President  Count  Stiirgkh,  who  was  shot  by  Dr.  Friedrich 
Adler,  subsequently  leader  of  the  Social  Democrats.  The 
news  of  this  crime  made  an  utterly  devastating  impression 
on  the  Emperor.  He  was  firmly  convinced  that  to  all  the 
misfortunes  brought  on  us  by  our  external  enemies  was 
now  to  be  added  that  of  internal  revolution.  He  feverishly 
held  conferences  with  the  most  eminent  Austrian  statesmen 
with  a  view  to  finding  a  means  of  averting  the  peril,  and 
on  all  these  occasions  made  the  absolute  necessity  of  imme- 
diately convening  the  Austrian  chambers  the  first  plank  in 
the  platform.  On  November  5  the  Emperor  appointed  the 
joint  Finance  Minister,  Dr.  Ernst  von  Koerber,  to  be  the 
Austrian  Minister-President.  The  new  minister  made  it 
his  principal  task  to  revive  constitutional  government  in 
Austria.  He  was  a  gifted  and  outstandingly  able  politician 
and  official,  unquestionably  the  best  man  to  undertake  this 
formidable  mission,  particularly  as  he  had  once  before  been 

365 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

Austrian  Minister-President  (1900  to  1904)  and  could  thus 
bring  practical  experience  to  his  work. 

On  November  5,  the  day  of  von  Koerber's  appointment 
as  Minister-President  of  the  western  half  of  the  empire, 
it  was  solemnly  proclaimed  by  the  Military  Governors  in 
Warsaw  and  Lublin  that  Poland  was  to  be  established  as  a 
hereditary  constitutional  monarchy,  in  close  association  with 
Germany  and  Austria-Hungary.  The  Emperor  Francis 
Joseph  and  William  II.  had  decided  on  this  step — mainly 
under  pressure  from  the  military  leaders — with  a  view  to 
inducing  the  Poles  to  take  a  more  active  part  in  the  war, 
especially  in  the  way  of  supplying  recruits. 

Events  were  to  show  that  this  proclamation  was  not  only 
a  fatal  aberration,  but,  in  fact,  one  of  the  most  serious  political 
errors.  It  had  no  results  of  any  value  to  the  Central  Powers 
and  produced  disastrous  consequences,  because  it  utterly 
destroyed  any  chance  of  a  future  understanding  with  Russia. 
In  addition  it  had  a  disruptive  influence  on  the  internal 
situation  of  Austria,  owing  to  the  position  of  Galicia.  At 
the  moment  when  the  Central  Powers  were  offering  to 
restore  Poland,  they  ought  logically  to  have  conceded  the 
incorporation  in  the  new  state  of  all  the  regions  with  a 
Polish  population  which  belonged  to  it.  That  they  would 
not  do,  so  the  newly  created  Poland  remained  nothing  but 
a  torso.  All  they  did  was  to  create  a  new  irredenta  in  neigh- 
bouring territories. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  proclamation — like  many  other 
things  which  originated  in  the  initiative  of  the  military 
leaders  of  Germany  and  Austria-Hungary  during  the  world 
war — was  simply  a  phrase,  and  even  the  blast  of  trumpets 
that  accompanied  it  could  deceive  no  one  as  to  its  essential 
hoUowness.  From  both  points  of  view  it  would  have  been 
better  not  to  have  issued  it. 

The  old  monarch  now  played  no  more  than  a  wholly 
passive,   even   mechanical   part.     His   energies   were  already 

366 


The  Old  Emperor  in  the  World  War 

declining.  His  inward  anguish  and  the  extreme  strain  on 
his  mental  powers  during  the  summer  of  1916  had  at  length 
broken  down  his  physical  strength. 

In  the  last  days  of  October  the  Emperor  had  an  obstinate 
attack  of  bronchial  catarrh.  It  was  soon  accompanied  by 
an  intermittent  fever  which  pointed  to  an  insidious  inflam- 
mation of  the  lungs.  Simultaneously  he  began  to  show  an 
increasingly  serious  loss  of  appetite  which  gradually  produced 
alarming  signs  of  physical  exhaustion.  Dr.  von  Kerzl,  his 
physician,  did  what  was  humanly  possible  to  cure,  or  at  any 
rate  check  these  symptoms,  which  were  becoming  dangerous 
in  view  of  the  Emperor's  advanced  age.  But  this  time  he 
had  no  success. 

Unwilling  to  trust  to  his  own  skill  alone  any  longer,  Dr. 
Kerzl  called  in  the  celebrated  physician  and  University 
professor,  Hofrat  Dr.  Ortner.  They  treated  the  Emperor 
in  conjunction,  but  unhappily  without  result.  He  became 
worse  every  day.  Our  hopes  for  his  recovery  began  to  sink, 
and  on  November  10,  on  Count  Paar's  initiative,  the  first 
preparations  were  made  for  the  melancholy  eventuality  of 
his  death. 

An  apparent  slight  improvement  in  the  Emperor's  health 
lasted  but  a  few  days.  Then  the  fever  set  in  again,  and  more 
violently,  and  his  strength  now  rapidly  declined.  Yet  he 
worked  untiringly  at  his  table  from  early  morning  to  late  at 
night  as  usual.  He  received  his  ministers  and  advisers  in 
conference  and  dispatched  state  business  with  his  wonted  care. 
His  triumph  over  himself  won  the  admiration  of  everyone. 
It  seemed  as  if  with  the  Emperor  his  amazing  sense  of  duty 
found  his  struggle  with  his  sufferings  a  positive  cure. 

At  this  time  the  aides-de-camp's  office  at  Schonbrunn 
was  a  hushed  and  melancholy  place.  Its  frequenters  ex- 
changed but  few  remarks  and  those  in  low  tones.  As  a  rule 
a  silence  brooded  over  the  room  which  had  once  resounded 
with  many  a  lively  discussion.     Occasionally  our  eyes  would 

367 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

meet  in  a  dumb  look  of  inquiry  :    "  What  will  happen  if  our 
old  Emperor  leaves  us  ?  " 

That  was  an  evil  and  gloomy  time.  It  was  to  grow 
yet  worse. 

On  Monday,  November  20,  after  a  very  bad  and  sleepless 
night  in  which  he  had  been  sorely  tormented  by  a  wracking 
cough,  the  Emperor  was  once  more  at  his  desk,  but  the  night 
had  so  exhausted  him  that  he  could  hardly  breathe  and  was 
terribly  shaken  by  his  growing  fever. 

He  asked  for  confession,  which  was  celebrated  by  his 
chaplain.  Dr.  Seydl.  Reconciled  with  his  Maker  and  thereby 
spiritually  regenerated,  the  Emperor  once  more  set  resolutely 
to  work,  though  the  Angel  of  Death  was  already  hovering 
above  him. 

His  daughters  and  Princess  Elizabeth  Windisch-Gr^tz  and 
the  Archduke  Charles  were  speedily  sent  for,  for  his  condition 
excited  great  apprehension.  By  the  next  day  it  had  become 
extremely  serious. 

Yet  the  old  Emperor  worked  on  uninterruptedly  at  his 
desk. 

He  dealt  with  the  morning  reports,  files,  and  even  the 
papers  sent  him  in  the  usual  two-o'clock  portfolio.  He  even 
tried  to  collect  the  papers  for  the  five  o'clock  portfolio  .  .  . 
but  the  end  had  been  reached. 

From  my  office  at  the  Hofburg  I  rang  up  Schonbrunn 
towards  five  o'clock  to  ask  how  the  Emperor  was.  The 
gentleman-in-waiting  on  duty  simply  answered  that  I  must 
not  expect  the  five  o'clock  portfolio  that  day. 

Thereupon  I  rushed  off  to  Schonbrunn,  fetched  Count 
Paar,  who  had  completely  broken  down,  from  his  apartment 
in  the  Meidling  corridor,  and  we  went  down  to  the  aides-de- 
camp's  office  together.  Prince  Montenuovo  and  two  of  the 
aides-de-camp  were  already  there.  From  time  to  time 
Dr.  Kerzl  and  Dr.  Ortner  looked  in.  Their  reports  became 
worse  and  worse. 

368 


The  Old  Emperor  in  the  World  War 

About  seven  o'clock  the  Archduke  Charles  appeared. 
He  was  in  the  uniform  of  a  general  with  all  his  decorations, 
and  cast  an  aimless  glance  at  us  all.  It  was  obvious  from  his 
appearance  that  he  was  very  agitated.  He  did  not  say 
much,  but  waited  in  tense  anxiety  for  the  doctors'  reports. 

In  the  evening  I  had  to  go  back  to  the  Hofburg  to  finish 
some  very  urgent  work,  but  at  half-past  eight  I  returned 
to  Schonbrunn  with  Baron  von  Bolfras.  In  the  ante-chamber 
to  the  Emperor's  apartments  I  met  Dr.  Ortner  and  asked 
him  breathlessly  whether  the  Emperor's  inflammation  of  the 
lungs  had  passed  the  crisis. 

"  Crisis  1  "  replied  Ortner.  "  It's  the  end.  Hardly  an 
hour  now  !  " 

At  five  minutes  past  nine  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph 
was  dead. 

The  Emperor's  family  and  a  large  number  of  court 
functionaries  were  gradually  collecting  in  the  chamber  of 
death  when  I  said  a  silent  farewell  prayer  to  my  sovereign, 
whom  my  grandfather,  my  father  and  I  myself  had  served 
in  turn.  We  could  hear  the  new  arrivals  conversing  in  the 
Emperor's  cabinet  adjoining,  but  in  the  bedroom  of  the 
dead  Emperor,  with  its  simple,  not  to  say  spartan,  appoint- 
ments, a  hushed  and  reverent  peace  reigned. 

Awed  by  the  majesty  of  death,  I  let  fall  the  sheet  which 
covered  the  Emperor's  face,  and  went  out  through  the 
cabinet  in  which  the  new  Emperor  Charles  was  talking  to 
several  Archdukes  and  Archduchesses.  He  was  now  wearing 
the  uniform  of  an  admiral  of  the  fleet.  Only  two  hours 
before  I  had  seen  him  in  that  of  a  full  general. 

The  following  morning  I  presented  myself  with  my 
morning  report  at  Schonbrunn  as  usual.  When  I  entered 
the  office  Count  Paar  was  not  there.  There  was  to  be  no 
morning  report  either.  Everything  had  changed  .  .  .  for 
the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  was  absent !  I  hurried  to  Count 
Paar*s   apartments.     The   old  general   was   sitting,  pale  and 

369  24 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

careworn,   at  his   bureau.     Our   eyes   met.     We  could   not 
speak.     Then  he  took  my  hand. 

"  YouVe  still  most  of  your  life  before  you,  but  I  died 
yesterday  evening,  too  !  " 

The  aged  officer's  declaration  of  loyalty  was  neither  pose 
nor  a  phrase,  but  the  solemn  truth  ! 

Count  Paar  took  part  in  all  the  funeral  ceremonies  of  the 
Emperor  Francis  Joseph.  He  could  hardly  stand  up,  but  he 
paid  his  dead  master  the  last  honours.  He  was  also  present 
at  the  solemn  mass  for  the  dead  on  December  2,  but  in  the 
afternoon  of  that  day  he  had  an  apoplectic  fit. 

The  deathless  loyalty  of  this  tried  and  trusted  servant 
will  always  be  to  me,  and  all  who  knew  him,  an  inspiring 
example  of  a  noble  and  shining  soul. 

At  first  Francis  Joseph's  body  lay  on  a  simple  bier  in  the 
smaller  of  his  two  cabinets  in  the  palace  at  Schonbrunn. 
A  small  altar  was  set  up  in  the  same  room,  and  during  the 
week  masses  were  said  for  the  soul  of  the  departed  ruler. 
The  rooms  were  also  thrown  open  to  the  public,  and  people 
came  to  Schonbrunn  in  an  unending  stream  for  hours  at 
a  time  to  bid  farewell  to  the  dead  Emperor. 

Five  days  after  his  death,  the  Emperor's  body  was  trans- 
ferred in  solemn  procession  to  the  Hofburg  by  night,  in  ac- 
cordance with  traditional  ceremonial.  There  it  was  laid  on 
the  magnificent  state  bier  in  the  chapel.  There,  in  a  sea  of 
light  and  glorious  wreaths,  Francis  Joseph,  in  the  full-dress 
uniform  of  a  field-marshal  with  all  his  decorations  and 
orders,  lay  until  the  morning  of  November  30.  Here  again 
an  immense  number  of  people  filed  by  to  see  their  revered 
old  Emperor  once  more  before  he  passed  to  his  last  resting- 
place  among  his  forefathers.  In  death,  even  more  than  in  life, 
it  was  seen  how  enormously  popular  Francis  Joseph  had  been. 

In  the  early  afternoon  of  November  30, 191 6,  the  Emperor's 
coffin  was  closed  and  placed  with  the  prescribed  ceremonial 
on  the  magnificent  black  funeral  car. 

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The  Old  Emperor  in  the  World  War 

The  carriages  containing  the  personnel  of  the  dead 
monarch's  court  and  a  carriage  with  the  wreaths  preceded 
the  funeral  car.  Life  Guards  provided  the  escort.  An 
infantry  battalion  was  drawn  up  at  the  outer  Burgtor.  There 
were  no  other  troops  in  Vienna  at  the  time.  There  could 
be  no  military  splendour,  for  the  Emperor's  soldiers  were 
fighting  on  many  fronts  against  superior  enemies.  Out 
there  from  the  guns  and  rifles  of  the  Austro-Hungarian  armies 
thundered  a  "  Last  Post  "  for  the  dead  Emperor  ! 

From  the  outer  Burgtor  the  funeral  procession  turned 
into  Ringstrasse,  passed  the  Opera  House,  the  Schwarzenberg- 
platz  and  the  Ministry  of  War,  crossed  the  Franz  Joseph-Kai 
and  went  up  the  Rotenturmstrasse  to  the  metropolitan 
church  of  St.  Stephen.  Here  all  the  mourners  were  assembled 
and  the  dead  Emperor  was  solemnly  blessed  by  the  Prince 
Bishop  of  Vienna,  Cardinal  Piffe. 

Then  the  coffin  was  again  placed  on  the  funeral  car 
and  the  procession  completed  the  last  part  of  its  journey 
across  Karntnerstrasse  and  the  Neuer  Markt  to  the  Church 
of  the  Capucins,  in  the  crypt  of  which  Francis  Joseph  was 
to  be  buried. 

During  this  short  stretch  the  dead  monarch's  coffin  was 
followed  by  the  Emperor  Charles  and  his  wife,  the  Empress 
Zita,  and  their  eldest  son,  the  Crown  Prince  Otto,  the  Kings 
of  Bavaria  and  Saxony,  Tsar  Ferdinand  of  Bulgaria,  the 
German  Crown  Prince,  and  the  other  royal  mourners  and 
representatives,  all  on  foot.  An  enormous  crowd  had 
assembled  on  the  Biirgersteige  in  Karntnerstrasse,  and  there 
were  people  in  all  the  windows  and  even  on  the  roofs  of  the 
houses. 

After  a  short  blessing  in  the  Church  of  the  Capucins 
the  coffin  was  borne  down  to  the  crypt  and  laid  next  to  those 
of  the  Empress  Elizabeth  and  Crown  Prince  Rudolph.  The 
old  Emperor  was  at  rest  with  his  nearest  and  dearest. 

On    December    2nd,   the   sixty-eighth  anniversary  of  his 

371 


The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  his  Times 

accession,  a  solemn  mass  for  the  dead  was  said  in  the  chapel 
of  the  Hofburg.  The  young  Emperor  and  Empress,  the 
members  of  the  royal  family  and  all  the  highest  military 
and  civil  authorities  were  present.  With  that  service  ended 
the  funeral  ceremonies  of  the  dead  Emperor  and  King 
Francis  Joseph  I.  Before  many  weeks,  indeed,  before  many 
days,  he  was  forgotten,  utterly  forgotten  amid  the  stormy 
and  anxious  days  of  the  world  war  which  swept  pitilessly 
over  the  living  and  so  many  other  dead. 

To  the  dead  Emperor  any  kind  ^of  obsequiousness  or 
angling  for  popularity  was  so  fundamentally  and  inherently 
repugnant  that  it  would  be  nothing  short  of^an  impiety 
to  brush  away  that  image  of  solitary  and  selfless  impersonality 
which  the  Emperor  gave  us  by  ending  my  book  with  a  panegyry. 
I  think  I  can  best  close  these  memories  as  my  dead  sovereign 
would  have  me  close  them  if,  in  his  name  and  spirit,  I  recall 
the  opening  words  of  Christina  Rossetti's  immortal  poem  : 

When  I  am  dead,  my  dearest, 
Sing  no  sad  songs  for  me ; 
Plant  thou  no  roses  at  my  head, 
Nor  shady  cypress  tree. 
Be  the  green  grass  above  me 
With  showers  and  dewdrops  ^wet, 
And  if  thou  wilt,  remember, 
And  if  thou  wilt,  forget  / 


INDEX 


INDEX 


A. 

Abbas  II.,  Khedive,  294. 

Abdal  Hamid  II.,  Sultan  of  Turkey, 

283. 
Adelgunde,  Duchess  of  Modena,  232. 
Adler,  Friedrich,  Doctor,  365. 
Aerenthal,  Count,  21,  247  to  249,  252 

264,  269,  270,  281,  282,  285,  293,  303. 
Albert,  King  of  Belgium,  276. 
Albert.  King  of  Saxony,  151,  221,  233. 
Albin  L.,  Cur6,  70. 
Albrecht,  Duke  of  Wurtemberg,  235. 
Albrecht,  Prince  of  Prussia,  231. 
Albricd,     Lieutenant-Colonel     Count, 

246,  247. 
Alexander  II.,  Czar  of  Russia,  7,  233 
Alexander,  King  of  Serbia,  284. 
Alfonso  XIII.,  King  of  Spain,  276,  277 
Alfonso  of  Bourbon,  Don,  201. 
Andrassy,  Count,  13. 
Andrassy,  Julius,  Count,  268. 
Apponyi,  Albert,  Count,  268. 
Apponyi,  Ludwig,  Count,  100  to  102. 
Attems,  Count,  Governor,  199,  200. 
Auersperg.  Prince.  176. 
Auffenberg,  General,  332. 
Augusta  Victoria,  Empress,  226. 
Avama,  Duke,  246. 
Averescu,  General,  330,  331. 


Bach,  Baron,  4. 

Baden,  Grand  Duke  of,  235. 

Badeni,  Count,  191,  192- 

Baker,  Mr.,  61. 

Banffy,  Baron,  293. 

Bardolff,  Colonel,  133. 


Barros  Merino,  Colonel,  298. 
Batten  berg,  Louis  of,  Prince,  272. 
Bavona,  Msgr.,  292. 
Beck,  Baron  von,  20,  203. 
Belcredi,  Count.  10. 
Bellegarde,  Captain  Count,  201. 
Benczur,  Professor,  65,  272. 
Berchtold,  Count,  141,  285.  286.  304, 
305,  311  to  314.  316,  318,  319.  321, 

324.  333.  343.  346. 
Bemadotte,  Count,  131. 
Bethmann-Hollweg,  Herr  von,  238. 
Beust,  Baron  von,  12,  190. 
Bieberstein,  Field-Marshal  Baron  von, 

248. 
Bienerth,  Baron  von,  192. 
Bihnski,  Baron  von,  304,  324. 
Bismarck,  Prince,  10,  11,  220,  269,  324. 
Bitterlich,  Professor,  66. 
BodjadjiefiE,  General,  350. 
Bolfras,  General  Baron  von,  307,  336, 

337.  339.  340.  342.  358,  364.  369. 
Bollati,  Msgr.,  245. 
Bombelles,  Countess,  107. 
Bombelles,  Admiral  Count,   106. 
Boris,  Crown  Prince  of  Bulgaria,  282. 
Boroevlc,  General,  347,  358.  359. 
Bothmer,  General  Count,  359. 
Brosch-Aarenau,  Major  Alexander  von, 

133.  152- 
Brownlow,  General,  272. 
Bruch,  Baron,  4. 
Brunswick,  Duke  of,  237. 
Brussilofif,  General,  359- 
Baiow,  Prince,  238,  240,  343. 
BQlow,  Major  von,  222,  223,  240. 
Buol,  Count,  7. 
Burian,  Baron  von,  346,  347. 

375 


Index 


Cadoma,  General  Count,  347. 

Canciani,  Commander,  246. 

Caneva,  General,  246. 

Carlos,  King  of  Portugal,  277. 

Charles  IX.,  King  of  Denmark,  273. 

Charles  X.,  King  of  Denmark,  273. 

Charles  I.,  King  of  Rumania,  115, 
278  to  280,  335. 

Charles,  Archduke  and  Emperor,  22,  23, 
143  to  165,  195,  293,  320,  340,  341, 
352,  359,  364.  368,  369,  371,  372. 

Charles  Albert,  King  of  Sardinia,  4. 

Charles  Louis,  Archduke,  13,  17,  no, 

153.  235. 
Charles  Ludwig,  Archduke,  130. 
Charles  Theodore,   Duke  of  Bavaria, 

233,  276. 
Charlotte,     Empress     of     Mexico,     a 

Princess  of  Belgium,  63,  89. 
Chiattone,  Signor,  66. 
Christian  IX.,  King  of  Denmark,   10, 

236,  273,  300. 
Christomanos,  M.,  61. 
Comtesse,  Vice-President,  290. 
Conrad-Hotzendorf,   General   von,  22, 

114,  116,  164,  302  to  304,  311,  324, 

327,   328,   331,  332,  334,   339,   341, 

342,  357  to  362,  364. 
Constantine,  King  of  Greece,  274. 
Crabtree,  the  Reverend,  267. 
Crczier,  M.,  287. 

Cumberland,  Duke  of,  236,  237,  312. 
Cumberland,  Duchess  of,  175,  273. 
Czirdky,  Count,  75. 

D. 

Dahlerup,  Baron  von,  114. 

Danilo,  Crown  Prince  of  Montenegro, 

283. 
Dankl,  General,  332,  347. 
Davila  Baeza,  Colonel,  298. 
Dedk,  Franz,  214,  215. 
Deimling,  Lieutenant-Colonel,  248. 
Delcasse  M.,  224. 
Del  Mastro,  Colonel,  246. 
Del  Mayno,  Count,  24. 
Deucher,  Walter,  President,  290. 
Diaz  Porfirio,  President,  297,  298. 
Draga,  Queen  of  Serbia,  284. 
Drury,  Admiral,  272, 


Egger,  Ludwig,  42. 
Eleonora,  Queen  of  Bulgaria,  280. 
Eleonora,  Princess  of  Reuss,  282. 
Elizabeth,  the  Empress,  7,  18,  56  to  81, 

88  to  90,  93,  96,  97,  98,   104,  226, 

232,  243,  270,  286,  371. 
EUzabeth,    Queen   of    Rumania,    278, 

279. 
EUzabeth,  Princess,  17. 
Elizabeth  Marie,  Archduchess,  231. 
Edward  VII.,   King  of  Great  Britain 

and  Ireland.  20,  43,  44,  53.  9^-  222, 

224,  225,  255  to  273,  281,  325. 
Emanuel,  Prince,  Duke  of  Vendome 

277. 
Enver  Pasha,  249. 
Ernest  Augustus,  Duke  of  Cumberland, 

236,  237. 
Eugene,  Archduke,  337.  347.  359- 
Eugenie,  Empress,  66,  261.  270. 
Eulenburg,  Prince,  238,  239. 

F. 

Falkenhayn,  General,  365. 
Faure,  Felix,  President,  286. 
Fejervdry,  General  Baron  von,  267. 
Ferdinand  I.,  Emperor,  2,  3,  4. 
Ferdinand,    King    of    Rumania,    279, 

280,  335,  361. 
Ferdinand,   King  of  Bulgaria,  280  to 

282,  356,  371. 
Ferdinand  Charles.  Archduke,  112. 
Ferdinand  Max,  Archduke,  12,  297. 
Fliess,  Captain.  298. 
Forgach,  Count.  304. 
Francis   I..    Emperor   of  Austria,    32, 

216.  218. 
Francis  V.,  Duke  of  Modena,  112,  116. 
Francis  Charles,  Archduke,  2,  3,  4. 
Francis  Ferdinand,  Archduke,  17,  19. 

20,  no  to  142,  149  to  152,  161,  178, 

209,   212,   213,   250,   256,   263,   264, 

269,  282,  287.  303. 
Francis  Joseph  Otto,  Archduke,  159. 
Frank,  General,  336. 
Franz  Salvator,  Archduke,  18,  231,  355- 
Frederick  III.,  Emperor,  219,  242. 
Frederick  I.,  King  of  Prussia,  220. 


376 


Index 


Frederick   VIII.,   King   of   Denmark^ 

273.  274. 
Frederick,  Empress,  52. 
Frederick,  Archduke,  19,  22,  158,  256, 

276,  327.  328.  332.  341,  357,  358. 
Frederick   Augustus    III.    of  Saxony, 

154,  234.  235. 
Fried jung,  Heinrich,  Dr.,  301. 


Hohnel,  Baron  von,  75,  loi. 
Holzlechner,  Joseph,  Doctor,  145. 
Hoyos,  Count,  loi  to  103,  304. 
Humbert,  King  of  Italy,  243,  245. 


Isabella,  Archduchess,  19,  128. 


Gallwitz,  General  von,  350. 
Gautsch,  Baron  von,  210. 
Gellinek,  Major,  320,  322,  323,  333. 
George  I.,  King  of  Greece,  273,  274. 
George,    King   of   Saxony,    145,    151, 

233.  234- 
George  V.,  King  of  Hanover,  236. 
George  V.,  King  of  England,  256,  265, 

270.  272, 
Georgi,  General  Baron  von.  330. 
Giesl,   Baron  von,  320,  321,  322,  333, 

341. 
Girodon,  Lieutenant-Colonel,  289. 
Gisela,    Archduchess,    7,    18.    64,    225, 

232, 
Gmeiner,  Herr,  100. 
Goluchowski,    Count,    223,    247,   248, 

326. 
Gondrecourt,  General  Count,  88. 
Gorgey,  General,  4,  214,  215. 
Gortschakoff,  Prince,  1 1 . 
Granito  de  Belmonte,  Archbishop,  293, 
Griinne,  Count,  5. 
Gustavus  Adolphus  V.,  275. 

H. 
Haakon,  King  of  Norway,  273,  274. 
Haldane,  Lord,  272. 
HaUier,  Lieutenant-Colonel,  289. 
Hardinge,  Sir  Charles,  264,  265. 
Harrach,  Count,  176. 
Haus,  Admiral,  330,  347. 
Hazai,  General  von,  330. 
Henriette,  Queen  of  the  Belgians,  89. 
Henry,  Prince  of  Holland,  276. 
Hesse,  Grand  Duke  of,  225. 
Hindenburg,  Field-Marshal,   163,  334, 

348,  359- 
Hohenberg,    Sophie,    Princess   of,    21 
129  to  132,  135,  136,  150. 


Joachim,  Prince,  231. 

John  George,  Prince,  234. 

Joseph    Ferdinand,     Archduke,     359, 

360. 
Juarez  Benito,  President.  12,  297. 
Justh,  Herr,  208. 

K. 

Kageneck,  Count  von,  240,  252. 

Kdlnoky,  Colonel,  326. 

Kapdist,  Count,  251. 

Kauter,  Abbot,  104,  105,  io6,  108. 

Kerzl,  Doctor  Ritter  vori,  46,  72,  73, 

74.  76.  93.  98.  201,  355,  367,  368. 
Khuen-Hedervdry,  Count,  208. 
Koerber,  Dr.  Ernst  von,  128,  192,  207, 

365,  366. 
Kossuth,  Louis,  4. 
Kossuth,  Franz,  208. 
Kovess,  General  von,  350,  355. 
Krauss,  Alfred,  General,  358. 
Krobatin,    General     Baron   von,    330, 

363.  364- 
Kruger,  President,  221. 

L. 
Laguiche,  Marquis  de,  289. 
Lammasch,  Doctor,  54,  156,  157,  268, 

269. 
Larisch,  George,  Count,  93. 
Larisch,  George,  Countess,  93  to  95. 
Leo  XIII.,  Pope,  53,  94,  291,  292. 
Leopold  II.,  King  of  the  Belgians,  89, 

275,  276. 
Leopold,  Emperor,  32. 
Leopold,   Prince  of  Bavaria,   18,   183, 

232,  348. 
Leopold,  Salvator,  Archduke,  300. 
,      Leschjanin,^Colonel,  285. 

Levesque,  Lieutenant-Colonel,  280. 

377 


Index 


Lichtenstein,  Prince,  176. 
Lichy,  August,  Count,  75. 
Linsingen,  General,  359. 
Lonyay,  Elemer,  Count,  103. 
Loschek,  valet  of  Prince  Rudolph,  92. 
Louis  III.,  King  of  Bavaria,  232. 
Louise,  Crown  Princess,  234. 
Luccheni,  anarchist,  78. 
LudendorfE,  General,  163. 
Ludwig  of  Bavaria,  Archduke,  93. 
Luitpold,  Prince  Regent,  36,  232. 
Lukdcs,  Herr,  208. 

M. 

Mackensen,   Field-Marshal    von,     225, 

348.  350.  351.  352. 
McKinley,  President,  296. 
Maha-Wadjirawudh,  Crown  Prince  ot 

Siam,  294. 
Malbrdn,  Captain,  298. 
Manuel,  King  of  Portugal,  277,  278. 
Mardegani,    Baron   von    Kizigin,    195, 

198,  199,  200. 
Margaret  Sophia,  Archduchess,  235. 
Margherita,  Queen  of  Italy,  243. 
Maria  Adelaide,  Archduchess,  245. 
Maria  Antonia,  Duchess  of  Parma,  152, 

153.  154.  162. 
Maria  Annunziata,  Archduchess,  153. 
Maria  Christina,  Queen  of  Spain,  276. 
Maria  Theresa,  Empress,  65. 
Maria  Theresa,  Archduchess,  153,  162. 
Maria  Josepha,  Archduchess,  145,  148, 

153.  162. 
Marie,  Queen  of  Rumania,    135,   279, 

335.  361. 

Marie,  Queen  of  Naples,  233. 
Marie,  Queen  of  Hanover,  236. 
Marie  Valerie,  Archduchess,  7,  18,  64, 

72,  106,  185,  201,  355. 
Marschall,    Godfried,    Doctor,    130   to 

132. 
Marterer,      Lieutenant-General      von, 

336.  338.  358. 
Martschenko,  Colonel,  252. 
Mary,  Queen,  256. 

Mary,  Princess,  117. 
Mathilde,  Princess,  234. 
Matsch,  Professor,  78. 
Max,  Princo  of  Baden,  236. 


Max,  Prince  of  Hohenberg,  150. 
Max,  Duke  of  Bavaria,  7. 
Maximilian  Joseph,  King  of  Bavaria,2. 
Mayer,  Bishop,  8,  204. 
Mecklenburg,  Duchess  Paul  of,  279. 
Mecklenburg-Schwerin,  Grand  Duke  of, 

236. 
Merry  del  Val,  Cardinal,  244. 
Metternich,  Prince,  2,  4,  122. 
Michael,  Grand  Duke,  253. 
Middleton,  General,  61,  68  to  71,  95 

to  99,  102. 
Milan  Obrenowitsch,   King  of  Serbia. 

283,  284,  285. 
Militza,  Crown  Princess  of  Montenegro, 

283. 
Mirafiori,  Countess,  129,  130. 
Mirko,  Prince  of  Montenegro,  355. 
Mohammed  V.,  Sultan  of  Turkey,  283. 
Moltke,  Count,  310. 
Montenuovo,    Prince,    140,    305,    306^ 

309.   317.   329.   330.    335.   339.   34°' 

360,   361,   368. 
Mossolov,  General,  326. 
MozaSer-Ed-Din,  Shah  of  Persia,  294. 
Munk,  Ebba,  wife  of  Count  Bernadotte, 

131. 

Musulin,  Baron  von,  304. 

N. 
Napoleon  I.,  122. 
Napoleon  III.,   Emperor,   8,    11,    189, 

287,  288. 
Nicholas,  Grand  Duke,  349. 
Nicholas  I.,  Czar  of  Russia,  4,  7,  254. 
Nicholas  II.,  Czar  of  Russia,  53,  115, 

222,  224,  225.  250,  251,  325,  349. 
Nicholas,  King  of  Montenegro,  282,  283, 

355.   356. 
Nigra,  Count,  246. 
Nopcsa,  Baron,  66. 


Olga,  Princess,  237. 

Ortner,  Doctor,  367  to  369. 

Oscar  II.,  King  of  Sweden,    131,   274, 

275 
Oscar,  Prince  of  Sweden,  131. 
Otto,    Archduke,    22,    H2,    145,    148, 

149.   151- 


378 


Index 


p. 

Paar,  General  Count,  27,  42,  50,  60,  63, 
64,  66,  68,  71  to  76,  85,  129,  130, 
136  to  139,  X42,  153,  161  to  163, 
202,  217,  219,  220.  230,  231,  235, 
238,  239,  249,  264,  276,  281,  286, 
289,  299,  304,  307,  309,  310,  311. 
316,  321  to  324,  329,  330,  333,  335, 
336,  339.  340,  342.  345.  346,  348. 
353.  354.  360,  362,  364,  367,  368 
to  370. 

Paget,  Augustus  Berkeley,  Sir,  270. 

Paget,  Lady,   270. 

Pecht,  General,  344. 

Peter  I.,  King  of  Serbia,  19,  141,  284, 
285,  325. 

Philip,  Prince  of  Saxe-Coburg  and 
Gotha,  281. 

Piffe,  Cardinal,  371. 

Pius  X.,  Pope,  124,  244,  291,  292. 

Plunkett,  Sir  Francis,  270. 

PoUio,  General,  351. 

Polonyi,   M.,  208. 

Potiorek,  Marshal.  307,  309,  334,  336 
to  338,  342.  35X. 

Pourtalfes,  Count,  318. 

Putik,  Voivode,  Chief  of  Serbian 
General  Staff,  320. 

Puzyna,  Kniaz,  Cardinal,  292 


Radetzky,  Field- Marshal,  3,  4,  8. 
Rainer,  Archduke,  245. 
Rampolla,  Cardinal,  291,  292. 
Reverseaux  de  Rouvray,  Marquis  de, 

287. 
Robert,  Duke  of  Parma,   153. 
Rohr,  General,  347. 
Roop,  von.  Colonel,  253,  254,  326. 
Roosevelt,  President,  297. 
Rossopoulus,  M.,  61. 
Rothschild,  Alfons,  Baroness,  61. 
Rudolph,    Crown    Prince,   7,    17,   64, 

74,   82  to  109,    149,   161,   231,   255, 

275.  371- 

S. 
San  GiuUano,  Marquis  di,  245,  343. 
San  Marzano,  Sigray  di.  Count,  246. 
Scapinelli,  Count,  123,  292. 


Schaffgotsche.  Count,  202. 
Schaffle,  Msgr.  189. 
Schemua,  General,  358. 
Schiessl,  Baron  von,  194,  339,  340. 
Schmalzhofer,  Doctor,  72,  92,  io6. 
Schmerling,  Baron,  8. 
Schorlemer-Lieser,  Baron  von,  241. 
Schratt  Frau   Katherina,   35,    79,   92, 

216.  304,  305,  306,  343,  363. 
Schwarzenberg,  Prince  Felix,  4,  6. 
Seydl,  Doctor,  368. 
Simitsch,  Herr,  285. 
Sonnenthal,  Adolf,  65. 
Sonnino,  Sidney,  Msgr.,  346.' 
Sophie,  Archduchess,   2,   3,  5,   13,  63 

64.  73.  77.  232. 
Sophie,  Archduchess,  7. 
Sophie,  Chotek,  Countess,  19,  128,  264. 
Spannbauer,  Friedrich,  41. 
Spaum,  Baron  von,  26. 
Sprecher-Bemegg,  Colonel  von,  290. 
Stadium,  Count,  4. 
Stadler,  Father,  324. 
Stephanie,    Princess   of   Belgium,    17, 

83,  86,  89,  90,  94,  96,  103,  105,  275. 
Strakosch,  Alexander.  65. 
Strauss,  Maestro.  175. 
Strobl,  Herr,  65,  279. 
Strossmayer,  Bishop,  209. 
Stiirgkh,  Count,  202,  365. 
Sz6ch6n3ri,  Count  Julius,  184. 

T. 

Taaffe,  Count,  15.  191,  192. 

Talliani.  Msgr.,  292. 

Teck.  Duke  of,  270,  271. 

Thomas.  Duke  of  Genoa,  352, 

Than.  Prince,  202,  342. 

Thurmburg,  Latour  von,  Lieutenant- 

General,  86.  87,  89  to  95,  105. 
Th urn-Taxis,  Princess,  63. 
Tisza,  Stephen.  Count,   196.   202,  308. 

349.  364- 
Tittoni,  Monsieur,  245. 
Todonoflf,  General.  350. 
Touffe-Lauder,  De  La.  Mrs.,  60  to  63, 

109. 
Trani,  Countess  von,  233. 
Tschirschky-Bogendorff,      Herr     von, 

239.  305.  318. 


379 


Index 


u. 

Unissoff.  Prince,  252. 


Valdemar,  Prince,  273. 

Valfr6  di  Bonzo,  Count,  293. 

Vetsera,  Marie,  Baroness    von,  84,  93 

to  103. 
Victor  Emmanuel  II.,   King  of  Italy, 

13.  129. 
Victor  Emmanuel  II.,  King  of  Sardinia, 

8,  II,  24. 
Victor  Emmanuel  III.,  King  of  Italy. 

243  to  245.  352. 
Victoria,  Queen,  95,   117,  254,  271. 
Victoria,  Princess  of  Baden,  275. 
Victoria  Eugenia,  Queen  of  Spain,  277. 
Victoria  Louise,  Princess,  237. 

W. 

Wallersee,  Baroness,  93. 
Wallis,  Georg,  Captain  Count,  145,  146^ 
Walsh,  Arthur,  Mrs.,  265. 
Wedel,    Cavalry-General    Count,    238, 
239,  246. 


Wekerle,  Alexander,  Doctor.  42,  208. 
Widerhofer,  Baron  von,  98. 
Wiesner,  Ambassador,  304. 
Wilhelmina,  Queen  of  Holland,  276. 
William  I.,  King  of  Prussia  and  German 

Emperor,  10,  11,  219,  220. 
William  II.,  German  Emperor,  27,  28, 

30.  31.  52,  53.  92.  115.  219  to  231. 

236,   238,   239,  240,   278,   295,   334, 

350.  352,  353.  354.  366. 
WiUiam,Crown  Prince  of  Germany,37i. 
Windischgratz,  Prince,  4. 
Windischgratz,     Ehzabeth,    Princess, 

368. 
Winneken.  Colonel,  319. 
Wurm,  General,  338,  339. 
Wiirtemberg,  King  of,  235. 
Wiirtemberg,  Queen  of,  235. 


Zankievicz,  Colonel,  319. 

Ziehrer,  Herr,  175. 

Zita,  Empress,   147,   152  to  156,   158, 

162,  293,  371,  372. 
Zumbusch,  Kaspar  Ritter  von,  65,  66. 


Printed  at  The  Chapel  River  Press,  Kingston,  Surrey. 


UC  SOUTHERN  BEG 


A     000  718  451     8 


/OS  '/b-2_  ' 


